


Danny Hyde: Three Reapings Full

by TastingLatte



Series: Danny Hyde: The Timeless Series [3]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: 1900s, Demons, F/M, Multi-Arc, True Mates, demon mates, separated, true self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-03-10 15:05:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 35,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13504044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TastingLatte/pseuds/TastingLatte
Summary: Third Arc of the Danny Hyde: The Timeless Series, opens with Sebastian and Danny separated - by an ocean. They must overcome the Earl's banishment of Danny, fighting to become a family once more. The trials only continue, but they also remind one another that this, time with the Phantomhive family, is only a moment in time. They, as Demons and as Mates, are timeless.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the third Arc!! If you are new here, I advise you skip back to Arc 1 so you are introduced properly to Danny Hyde and the adventure. If you are coming from the second Arc... well, shall we continue?

Chapter 1: Danny POV

_Dear Sebastian,_

_I have found something wonderful here! I know the young Master would love this place - oh and Finnian, too! I miss you but I am trying not to think about that too much. I know you understand, my love._

I had landed in America a week after I left England. I had gotten a bit sick the way over, and had to find a dark alley and a questionable man, to feel better. The journey out of New York, which had become a sprawling, bustling city, with woman and men walking all over and horses and automobiles sharing the same space, had astonished me at first, but so did the change of London in my time there. I had found my way to my home state of Connecticut, not very far from New York City, via the new train and the kindness of a man who was heading further north, inland. I had graciously taken my leave, now only carrying a carpet bag full of my belongings, and had set out for somewhere remote, where I could get lost into nature.

The tall trees and open fields, all slowly submitting to the oncoming winter, made me long for the days of when I went sledding and sat by the fire, thawing from a snowball fight. We had wonderful times even when we were not working. I got lost on the side paths, and found a small crook in the road oddly familiar. The hanging sign was lost in the vines, still clinging to life, and I brushed them aside and my heart started to beat faster.

"Easton. Oh… Easton!" I ran down the frozen road, now wider, now the memories rushing back. I ran by a small house, and another, and a whole village had sprung into a town. I walked by the moonlight in awe of the town that I had brought the farm's produce to, our apples and baked goods. We would trade in the small store that still sat by the park, Daniel and I would attend school in the now post office. I bit my lip. Could it be? Could it still….

I ran out of town and down a road, a small road, a road that became a path, and I found the small rusted gate, hanging by its side, almost fallen off. I gently pushed it and set foot on the land that had once been my families. I fell on my knees and I sobbed. I was home, I was really home.

The moonlight guided my way to the small path that wound along the stone wall. Some of the trees were bare, skeletons against the sky, and a few remained healthy, fruit bearing. The scattered apples, rotting and forgotten by wild animals, or ready to be used for the winter, were scattered about. I walked between them, my fingers touching the bark, and I looked at the dead trees. I paused; I was in the East Garden, as my Mama would say. These trees were the best apple trees we had. Past the hill, a small one, was where the grove of grapes grew, and the small patch of vegetables, and the oaks, the tall oak trees. The trees that sheltered my family home.

I pulled up as I came upon the trees. There were markers, markers that I didn't want to see. Markers of my Mama, Papa… and Daniel. Alyse and Rose where next, and I clung to the stones, tracing their names, remembering their smiles as I had set out to Redding, to buy some wool so we could make new sweaters over the oncoming winter. November started mild, and I had enjoyed the walk, the leaves turning in the wind, as my family burned alive. I sobbed now, as I had then, my fingers clutching to the rough stones, and at the ground, below me, held their bodies, their remains, I remembered. Or perhaps nothing, the stones were all there to mark that my family had been. My family, the last one in four generations of Hydes' on the same land, tending to the same traditions. And now… I looked over to the stone beside my brothers, wholly forgetting it as I searched and wept for my sisters. My name was in stone.

Daniella Hyde. November 1860. I had a marker. I had a death day. I couldn't contain the sobs and the wail as it tore through me. I became black and inky, my Demonic body taking form as I couldn't deal with the pain. I floated on the clouds for a while, watching the sunrise, and I reformed, reoriented myself. No one was on the land, as I walked around. The old home, a outline of what was, and the small shed, was all gone. I walked around the outline, and marveled at the only live thing that was in the bones of the remaining stones. One hearty, live, apple tree. I could start again, I could become a new creature again.

It took two weeks to build the small cottage, away from the one I had grown up in. It took a while as I set about chopping wood and manipulating elements to form the stones, trying to focus and not have my mind wonder as I built a quaint home for myself. It would do until Sebastian came for me. I paused as I hung the door, shoving my sleeves up as walked into the room. I felt the sizzle of a portal opening and my heart stilled. Could I have a return already?

I stepped out of the cottage and looked toward the small hill that wound around the grove I had once hidden in, and found the ground scorched. I frowned as I bend down and touched the newly frozen ground. A heat remained and I looked around. No one was here, but something was. I stood up and peered into the pile of fallen trees I had yet to chop, and saw movement. I lept over the trees, and struck the movement - only to pull out a rather scared looking Reaper. He blinked and shrunk back even as my hand gripped his neck a bit harder. I pulled him closer and hissed.

"What are you doing here?"

"I… I … I could ask the same you… of you, ma'am?" he said, his voice trembling even as I put him down. He stood a good half a foot lower than me.

"This was my home," I said simply. "I was away for awhile, and I am intending to come back and stay."

"Have you registered? Are you British? How can you prove this?"

I looked at him and shook my head. "I have no ideas what you are talking about." I took a step back. "Where is the nearest Reaper office?"

He now looked terrified and I forgot all he saw was that there was a Demon before him. I couldn't really tell him I was an ex-Reaper - it was already a big risk for William to have sent my papers down, and I had lived through the Birthing, from what the Undertaker had said one time. "Look, I am Daniella Hyde, this was my family orchard, and I can't prove that because I have been away for 50 years." I smiled and tried to look sweet and innocent - which I was, but wasn't feeling much of as he continued to eye me. "And as for British, no, I am not. I have been in England for that time, and guess I have adapted."

"What's your Classification?" he asked, pushing his glasses up and flipping his book open. Ah, a William. I smiled and eyed him. At least these were questions I could answer.

"I'm a Class S, Demon, Born, less than a year."

He stilled and looked up at me. "Born? You… but you are a Class S!"

"Yes, well… some things I did while I was a Human were horrid. Ah - not that I am here to repeat them! Please, don't put that in your Report. I left England for… peace. I want peace. I will not make Contracts, Feed unnecessarily, and I would have tagged myself if I had known where the Reaper Office was." He eyed me and put his pen away. I smiled softly and shrugged. "I had a good friend in England who was a Reaper. He was… understanding."

The Reaper once more looked around and took me in. "Well, Ms. Hyde, I see you are indeed alone. And you seem to be tending to the land. I'll put these in a note on your file and… ah, please don't interfere in town Reapings."

"I can do that," I said. "I am going to be interacting with the town though. My orchard, I'm going to be selling apples and such. I really don't want Humans around me all the time, some bad memories I am working on," I added, nodding as I got lost in the memory of the young Master's look as we drove away from the Manor.

"You may proceed," the Reaper said at last and walked away, making another Portal and left me alone once more.

I walked back to my cottage, pulling my wool shawl around me. How times had changed! A Demon Detection Department in America! I smiled; if all Demon taggings had been so easy. I struck a match and lit the small candle on my table, and brushed my hand over it, making it rise and fall. I tipped the candle over, the wax and flame settling into my hand, and I lit the wood in the fireplace. Pulling a piece of paper from the small table beside me, I settled to write a long letter to Sebastian. I waited to feel a Portal open for the next week after sending the letter off, and found myself standing beside my own grave, looking like a statue, waiting to come alive.


	2. Sebastian POV

_Dearest Daniella,_

_The servants miss you very much. Baldroy has told me repeatedly that he can't cook your bread recipe the way you do. I should have countered that it has nothing to do with the lack of you being there, rather his utter lack of cooking skills. Finnian is taking care of your plant like it is a precious item - which it is. Mey-Rin has been wandering down to your room a few times to clean it - even so it is spotless._

_The Master and young Master are… being taken care of. I am doing my best to keep still and not come to you. The Winter Ball was beautiful, as always, but lacked a very beautiful woman for me to dance with. Several Humans did offer, but I refused._

_Only you fit in my arms, my dearest love._

I sat on the bed, running my hands over the blanket, watching the sun rise. How many mornings had Danny and I watched the same sun rise together, but at different times, different locations? How had we not been doing such simple things since time began? I felt the Master call and I sighed. My duty. The object that tied my hands to the Soul and bound me to the whims of the Human.

"Sebastian!"

Now he was in the halls, calling for me. I sighed and floated down the hall, smirking as I re-appeared behind him. "My Lord?"

He started and turned. "Sebastian! Get a bell if you are sneaking around."

"I was not 'sneaking around' as you say. I was coming from a direction you could not perceive."

He eyed me and sighed. "The King is sending his secretaries today," he merely replied.

"Yes, I am aware. They made the request a few days ago."

"And you didn't wake me early."

"I didn't, my Lord?" I said, checking my watch. Of course I didn't, and I knew it. He had asked to be awoken by 6:15, and it was 6:37. "I thought I heard you and the Lady."

He blushed a bit and looked at me, shaking his head. "You need to get the papers together, Sebastian. We have Vincent's school papers to give to them as well."

I bowed, "Of course, my Lord. Are you sure you don't wish to continue his schooling here?"

He glared at me and turned to face me. The usual look when I asked the question. "Although I appreciate the wonderful learning I received, it is a new age, and Vincent should know how to deal with it."

I smiled again and let him pass as he walked away. It was a weak argument, and I didn't feel like once more pointing it out as such. I had said what I could, how Danny had not been the one to initiate the confusion within the young Master, but he had glared at me and told me if he could be rid of me as well, he would. I kindly reminded him of how he could do such a thing and he usually dismissed me. I went downstairs, hearing the servants moving above me to start their day as well. My household duties were to begin.

The usual interactions of the Master and I, those of Demon and Soul, confidants even, had slowly cooled after Danny left. I shifted some of my Butler duties to those who could handle them just as well, even so not as efficiently. Baldroy was cooking more meals, and Mey-Rin was left to clean the Manor with less supervision, except when it concerned the Mistress or the young Mistress. I personally made sure those accommodations were not interrupted.

The stack of papers for the Master to review and sign were set aside, and I gathered the curtains and flung them back, letting in the winter sunlight in. I glanced at the fire as the Master came in.

"It is cold in here," he muttered, pulling his jacket on tighter. "Is there even a fire going?"

"I didn't see Mey-Rin come in this morning."

"Stroke the damn fire, Sebastian."

"Of course, my Lord," I said, walking over to the fireplace and stoked it to a slow burn, relishing how it gave off heat as I did so. "Is that better?"

"Much," he grumbled, sitting down and frowning at the amount of papers. "Did we not go through these before?"

"Yes, we did. I thought it would be wise to go back over them and make sure that the signatures are correct."

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. "Are you…. Still? You are still mad at me dismissing the Tutor?"

"She has a name," I said. I was only remotely aware at how it sounded like a growl. I didn't apologize even as his eyes widened a fraction. He got up and rounded the desk, stalking me, as if I could be stalked.

"I am very aware that the Tutor had a name. Daniella. Daniella Hyde. Not Danny. Not Mister - Misses. Daniella. Hyde. How many times do you torture yourself with her name? You want me to say it? I am sending my son back to school because he has begged me to. Lizzie wakes up and leaves me to sleep beside our son. He has already packed his trunk. He wants to leave because of what you and _she_ did."

I looked at him for a moment. "I did more of the deceiving. Danny - Ms. Hyde - only did what she did because she wanted to smooth things over," I paused and looked at the stack of papers. "And I do suppose I am punishing you a little. I will bandage your fingers, should you get papercuts, my Lord."

"Just get some tea - and bring it yourself. Mey-Rin spilled half of it on the carpet. I suppose the wayward toy on the floor could have been blamed," he added. He turned and stared at me. "Tea, Sebastian. Please," he added.

I nodded and left. The young Master was coming down the stairs as I passed by and I paused. "Good morning, young Master. I am fetching tea for your father, would you like anything special for breakfast?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Toast and eggs will be fine." And he walked off to the dining room, the air crackling with his still mistrust of me. At least he didn't hate me as intensely. The past month and half had helped ease that tension. He was leaving tomorrow to go back to Weston, and I was more than happy to have the family leave the Manor for a few days. I had gotten a letter from Danny last week, and she had mentioned that the winter was a little rougher than she had remembered. Our letters had crossed and I found a small window I could use to visit her. It was almost two months, just another week and … I shook my head as the tea kettle whistled. I made the tea, added some fruits, and whisked it all upstairs. I showed the King's secretaries in, and went to pack the Master's things. I pressed his clothes in and eyed the Mistress' trunk. They were merely helping the young Master into the dorms, but she had packed as if she was readying for a Holiday in London.

I closed her trunk and placed the Master's on top of it. Perhaps they were going away for a bit longer. I frowned. And the Master had not told me. I chuckled at the duplicity. Ah yes, I had made a few adjustments to my normal routine, and he had "overlooked" a few last minute changes to our schedule. A quick trip to New Castle was on the books for next week - a small underground armory had been found and the King was rather concerned about. I was told about it yesterday, and although the timing didn't matter, since I still had a week to send my spies, I wasn't worried. The main thing was that I would have time with Danny. I had already sent word to the Undertaker to clear a Portal for me. I had a town location for her, and that was enough, he said.

"You are smiling," the Master muttered. "Here is that stack of 'redo signatures.'"

"I shall get these filed right away," I said. Picking them up I looked over at the King's Secretaries who were still sitting on the couches, thick books before them. "Is there anything I should be aware of?"

"No. Make sure my son is all ready for tomorrow."

"Very good, my Lord."

I carried the items to a box I kept in the corner of the alcove and tapped it, and the top opened. I placed the items inside and tossed in a coin as the lower Demon crawled to the top, peering up at me. "Deliver this to the King's Palace. Don't stop until the other side has taken possession."

"Of course, of course," it hissed in whispers. I snorted as the box closed; I had more secrets than the Master could imagine. After all, he was still under my thumb, not the other way around.

The evening passed and the Mistress found me as I was walking the halls before dinner.

"Sebastian, may I have a word?"

"Of course, my Lady."

"I was wondering if Ciel indicated if we would be heading north for our brief Holiday. I heard that there is a lovely Gala for the Scottish celebration," she said, clasping her hands and sighing. "The lights and music! Oh I do wish you could come!"

"Yes, most unfortunate," I said. I looked at the portrait of the family as we descended to the first floor. I glared at the painting of the Master. "And the young Mistress? Who shall look after her?"

"Mey-Rin of course," she said, looking at me as if it was obvious. To her, I sighed. The Master… so we were playing that game once more. Early on in our time together, when we both had dreams of a swift end of his Soul, he had investigated a few leads, had asked the Queen at that time for some information, and had sprung midnight trips out to the seedy side of London, all keeping his own mind to himself.

"I think he asked to pack the car tonight," she added as she paused at the dining room door. She placed a hand on my arm and looked at me. "What is on the menu tonight?"

"Broccoli soup, my Lady."

"Rachel can't eat that! And I am not feeling very well today, so cream may not be the best. Is there by chance…?"

I smiled and opened the door. "I shall get you a nice piece of chicken and extra tea. As for the young Mistress, perhaps some apple sauce?"

"She does seem to enjoy that," the Mistress said. "Ah, and I know Vincent will ask, the dessert?"

"I am trying my hand at apple cobbler," I said. She nodded and looked in as the Master and young Master were standing by the window, the Master's hand resting on his son's shoulder.

"I can't imagine not having Vincent around," the Mistress whispered. She sniffled and turned as we heard footsteps approaching. "Ah! Rachel! Oh you do look cute in that pink dress! Doesn't she Sebastian?"

"She looks like a vision, my Lady," I answered.

The Mistress held the young Mistress for a moment and looked up at me, biting her lip. She turned away and then turned back, as if she was decided to say something to me after all. "The Tutor - Mr. Hyde. Have you… have you heard from him? Any reason for his sudden departure?"

I smiled a little. The Master had not given much more explanation that the young Master had wished to no longer be taught by Mr. Hyde and had expressed interest in returning to boarding school. Of course they hadn't told the Mistress that Danny was a female either. "I have been in correspondence with him. He has settled in his new position it seems. A bit of a rough start, but normal he assured me. He sent his gratefulness for being so kind to him for the year he was here."

She nodded and patted my arm. "I sensed he was particularly close to you. Must be that you are both good men and only have our families interest in mind."

"Yes, my Lady, must be."

The evening service went on without much discussion about the lack of variety in foods for the Master and young Master versus the Mistress. The family moved into the music room and I listened as the Master plucked at the piano and finally called me over to play. The young Mistress, now more than six months old, laughed and smiled as I played some upbeat songs, that the Master and Mistress danced to. The young Master sat beside his sister and frowned, shaking his head when asked if he wanted to dance.

"I don't care for dancing," he said, and I switched to a slow song, letting the Master and Mistress dance closely.

I kept my eyes on the keys, remembering the same slow dance Danny and I had in the same room, many times. I had the barest of smiles on my lips as I thought about the next day and seeing her in person. Dancing with her in my arms, kissing her lips, brushing her hair back as I let my fingers trace her skin.

"Sebastian!"

I looked up and saw that the Master was walking back from the door, the Mistress leaving with the children. "Yes, my Lord?"

"You may wish to actually play the piano if your fingers are going to dance across the keys. Nevermind now, load the automobile - and Mey-Rin is coming as well, so she will be sitting next to you. Make sure her bags fit as well."

I stood and bowed. "Of course, my Lord. Apologies for my distracted playing."

I felt he knew it was a hollow apology even as he smirked and turned. I suddenly started across the room - who was to drive them to their Holiday? I growled and snorted out the breath I had taken. Of course I would; Mey-Rin was afraid to be in the automobile still, let alone learning to drive. And we had no room for Baldroy - the only other driver. I loaded the auto, stacking the trunks and tightening the braces. I glanced up at the darkened windows of the Master's bedroom. Well, I had the night.

I flew to the Undertaker and pounded on his door, he shook his head as we went to the back room, his stacks of coffins moved aside and the Portal appeared. He put a watch in my hand and looked at his own watch.

"I can give you four hours," he said and looked up. "I had to make this Portal just for you rather last minute."

I nodded and looked at the watch, the second hand ticking away. "I'll be… going."

"I'd say have a good time, but, hehe!"

I stepped through the Portal and felt the sizzle as I sighed; a Reaper Portal. It stung a bit as I opened the door to the other side, trusting the Undertaker that it opened where I wanted to go. The cold wind and snow was a promising start. I closed the door, noting the Power it put off, and turned into the wind. I smelled smoke, a wood burning stove, and I followed it. There was a low stone wall and bare trees, the signs of winter, of January and the death of producing, clung to each snowflake and waft of smoke. I continued to trudge on and found a opening in the wall and the trees, revealing a small cottage. Danny - her Power was now unmistakable. I walked to a window and peered in; she wasn't expecting me at all. I frowned a little as I tried to think of why she hadn't sensed the Portal; perhaps she was still too new to know? I smiled as I watched her swayed to the music on the player and how she turned and placed a hot pan down on the stove, the smell of lightly seared meat now in the air around the window. I walked to the door, a carved wooden door and knocked on it. I felt how sturdy it was and traced the carved lattice work on it. I smiled as I heard her pick up a gun and cocked it. Mey-Rin or Baldroy would have been proud.

"Who is it?" she yelled.

I pressed my hand to the door and watched as the firm iron hinges glowed. "It is me," I said simply as they burned deeper into the wood.

I heard her gasp and place the gun aside. The three locks and bolt slid aside and she was blinking rapidly as she opened the door. "Se… Sebastian!"

She flung herself at me, and I caught her, firmly in place, solidly in place, grounded in place, as her arms swung around my neck and she buried her face into me. She took in my scent as much as I did hers and Danny finally looked up at me. "Sebastian," she whispered and I leaned down, my hands on her back, and kissed her, deep and passionately, possessively as she kissed me back.

"I only have a few hours," I said, my arms around her, lifting her up as I walked her into the cottage. "I'm sorry it's only a few hours."

She shook her head and laid a finger on my lips. I noted that they were bare and I looked down at her Mark, so beautiful and bold against her pale skin. "We have what we have. To hold you and kiss you! Oh, Sebastian, even if this is all I get, I can bare our time apart a bit more."

"I am going to tell you now, I am utterly selfish - I still very much want the few days I had dreamed of having with you," I said, holding her tightly. "Of course the Master had other plans…."

"Oh dear," she whispered, both sadly and with affection. "You sound as if you two are not talking about things. Is he still mad?"

I sighed and smoothed her hair, now in a braid, and smiled softly. "Let us not talk about that man. Let's talk about you. This place is cute, a bit small, but very…"

"Homey?" she offered. She laughed and shrugged. "I have everything I need. It's smaller than the original home that was here - the one that… I was born in and," she paused and smiled as she looked around. "Do you want tea?"

"Not really," I whispered as I cupped her face and kissed her. "I'd rather not destroy the whole house you so carefully constructed."

"It's awfully cold out," she whispered back and looked up at me.

"I do love you," I breathed as I kissed her. She laced our fingers together and pulled me up the small stairs.

"Show me?"

"Gladly," I said, and soon we were under the warm blankets, making our own warmth with the little time we had.

Danny clung to me as we walked back to the Portal and I didn't want to let go even as I opened the door, and had mere seconds to go through, or risk being caught by the Reapers. Seeing Danny's smile and feeling her fingers slip from mine, I was willing to take the risk, but she closed the door even as I stood there, forcing me back to the Undertaker's funeral parlor.


	3. Sebastian POV

The Master ducked as his cane was thrown back at him. I deflected it as it hit close to his head, and threw two more knives into the attacker.

"A bit close," the Master said, rubbing his knee that he fell hard on. He picked up the cane and used it to stand. "Next time at least make sure I am landing in soft grass."

I simply nodded, surveying the ruined castle grounds. New Castle was hiding more than just guns and a smuggling ring; it hid a Demon Box. I could feel it as soon as we entered the ruins, and I didn't dare tell the Master. Not because I didn't want him to know, rather he didn't need to know. The Demon Box was like the one I had in the Manor, except the one here was not housing a low-level demon. This Box contained a Demon who had been starved, and it rattled it's lid with vengeance. I walked up the stone stairs and paused to let the Master catch up. He was still nursing his knee as he walked beside me, down the hall, his shoes echoing off the stone.

"If you are wishing everyone know we are coming, do wear those shoes, my Lord," I hissed. He shot me a glare and tried to shift his weight and ended up tip-toeing.

"Many apologies," he said, mockingly. "My Butler seemed to be gone so my _wife_ had to pack my clothes. Including my shoes. Next time I will ask her to pick up some slippers."

I smirked. "That would be preferable. Humans, up ahead."

"Well, do dispense of them. I wish to get in front of a fire and warm up."

I held out my hand and summoned a small fireball. "Shall I set the place ablaze?"

He smacked my hand down and I extinguished the flame. "This is a national monument, for god's sake! The Humans are what we must eliminate," he said, shaking his head. "Honestly… focus."

"Very good, my Lord."

We gathered the men and I stood beside the Master as he grilled them about the operation. The drugs, the women, the families that were waiting to be told where their mothers and daughters were. Watching the Master once more branding various weapons upon the men, made me smile. Perhaps he was punishing himself as he prodded the man and stepped out of the way of the blood pools. Perhaps he understood that the pain of not knowing if ones family was ever to be whole again weighed on his mind as he screamed his questions, the small amount of desperation creeping into his voice. He looked like a Demon that night, and I soaked up the energy and emotions.

"Take them," he spat, his Contract shining brightly. He had taken his patch off, knowing it both looked fierce and unnatural. Because it was both. I licked my lips as the blood streamed.

"Thank you, my Lord," I said, baring my teeth. I rushed the man hanging on the rack and drunk him in one sip. The other I smiled at, toying with him even as my Master had toyed with him earlier. A little mouse, scurrying into the shadows, and I plucked him up and swallowed each drop, the little bits of his rotten Soul feeding me. The Hunger had come back since Danny was gone. It had been satisfied by the one act my Master commanded and I brushed my jacket off even as the Master shrugged his back on, covering the blood stains of his shirt.

"A small rest and then we will see to the rest of the operation," he said, walking up the stairs. "I need some sleep after that. And a good strong tea."

"Of course, my Lord," I answered briskly. He had given me a lovely snack, the least I could do was serve his whims. Of course his whims at that moment were not frivolous, they could lead to more snacks for me, and more answers for the King.

I waited on him, and stood by his door as he slept. And I thought. A week before I had seen Danny for a few hours, enough to enjoy the delights of the flesh, but not enough to quell the Demon that I was. The Master had quickly put me into carting his family to re-enroll the young Master, and then a trip to northern Scotland for a few days, leaving Mey-Rin and myself to look after the young Mistress. Even as I did my duties to feed, change, and play with her, I could see how bright her Soul was and was reminded how Danny had reacted to seeing and smelling her. Many times I had to hand her to Mey-Rin and walk around the gardens and the town where we were staying, trying to ground myself, remind myself that this was a blink in the eternal life we would share. But it hurt, somewhere deep in my being. And when the Master and Mistress came back, I gladly did the required amount of work, and then stepped back. I had hired capable Humans to defend the Master and his family, and over the years, the many, many years, they had adapted and learned their required jobs at the Manor. It looked like servants, when in reality they were each killers and protectors.

I heard the Master shift in his sleep and sighed. The young Master had brought a strain to our relationship we had worked past a few times. The last time we had not talked about the tension was when he married the Mistress. He had begged for me to cover his eye, to let her see him as a whole man, to fully be restored. But I refused. I could have given him the illusion of having two fully functioning eyes, but how would the new Mistress react? She had grown accustomed to seeing him with a patch. She had accepted him as such. And the Master had stormed off, slamming doors around the London home, and had grumbled about each task I performed with my usual perfection. It ended before he went to the church to be married, and I had snapped at him - his behavior, his request, was childish. He had a mission to continue to strive for - why even marry? He had the Underbelly to continue to crush - why was he talking about a family? He had me at his beck and call - why was he not using me?

The Master had to trust me. He had to give in. But this… this breaking of a promise that Danny could stay, and be so fragile for the tears of a _child_ to sway him. I shook my head. No he deserved to have the scrapes he got. I had every right to disregard the young Master when he called me, I had every right to delay in filing his desires - to go out, to eat certain foods, to have me read over his French work, to practice Latin. I told him I didn't have time, I wasn't sure if I could assist, I had a Manor to run. Why could the _boy_ not understand what Danny had told him? She was protecting herself. She had suffered because of his shock. She had wished to punish herself - even me! - and had suffered the most. The young Master was at school and away from the Manor. He was truly no longer my problem. The innocent ones were the servants and the Mistress. They didn't know Danny's secret. They simply saw and knew she had left them without an explanation.

The sun was soon peeking over the hills as I went into wake the Master. As usual, he put up a fight, negotiating for a few more minutes of sleep, which I denied right away. He blinked and swing his legs out of the bed, missing the floor and stumbled into the night stand.

"Oh! Bloody hell!" he grumbled, holding his chin. "Sebastian! Why weren't you over here?"

"I don't need a perfect body, my Lord. Only a perfect Soul."

He glared at me and rolled his eyes. "Simply keep that to yourself."

I bowed as he passed me, on his way to the bathroom. "Of course, my Lord."

We finished the mission and once more arrived at the Manor, finding a letter from the young Master's school, letting the family know that they were so glad to have the young Master back and they could see the progress in him. The Master tossed the letter in the fire once he shared it with the Mistress.

"He better be wonderful," he grumbled. "I paid enough prices to have him Tutored."

I nodded and watched as the paper became small pieces and flew up, dancing on the flames. "My Lord, about the young Master's… condition that prompted you to hire the Tutor," I ventured. He turned and glanced at me. "Are you not afraid he may be… possessed once more?"

He narrowed his eyes and turned toward me fully. He looked like a powerful Earl and I smiled as the fire reflected in his eyes. "Could he be? I thought… the Tutor had assured it would not happen again."

"There is only one way to truly make sure he is not possessed, or even an attempt made to possess the young Master."

He shook his head. "Always _that_."

"Does our own Contract not bring you some comfort that I will be the only Demon who can take your Soul?"

He pursed his lips. "Honestly," he paused and met my gaze. "Yes. However, do not think that I am going to bring the Tutor back or hand over my son to you. How many times have I found myself in danger _because_ I have a Demon? I don't want my son - my legacy - to experience the same thing. If at all possible."

"And dismissing the Tutor was the first step to protecting him?"

"He has returned to school, and for the moment, has been doing well," he added, pointing to the now destroyed letter. "I have many eyes on my son. I don't need a Demon to do that simple task."

"Of course, my Lord."

"Don't placate me."

I bowed my head. "I would not do that in this instance."

He snorted as he moved back to his desk. "At least you are honest there are times you do."


	4. Danny POV

_Dearest Sebastian,_

_Even for a few hours we had, I have found that as a great comfort. I have been keeping myself safe, and I have been Feeding as needed. The snow has seemed to keep my own needs, pardon the pun, frozen._

_A few months we will see how many trees have made it. I already contacted a farmer upstate to buy some saplings as needed. Being back here has been bring back some of the good memories I had growing up here. I have started to build a few pens, and have added a dog to my lonely exile, making it a bit less lonely. I know you would recommend a cat, and I am going to get some once the barn is up. I need a horse to till the back pasture, and I am sure I could just summon some Demonic magic, and have it done, but working with my hands… it makes the pain less. Lesser. It doesn't work as well as yours do._

The cold air and my slightly hotter than Human body made it seem as if there was a fine mist of steam following me as I passed the grove and the graves. I was carrying a wooden beam I had fashioned to fix the fence that ran along the front of the property. The air smelled of more snow on the way and I knew no one would venture out this far from the main road, but I needed to stay busy. I had finished building the chicken coop the night before, and had slept a little. I had chopped another five trees down and had pulled the stumps, working my muscles as I had seen Papa do with the help of other workers and a horse. I chopped the stumps on my own now, and I could pull them up with no assistance. I was strong - so very strong.

I laid the beam down and nailed it to the other beam, creating a solid wall, about waist high. If someone was determined, was looking hard enough, they would find the wall, the new addition, and soon realize the farm land was occupied. I wanted to stay to myself, not only for the Humans safety, but for my own peace of mind. Working left little time for my body to give into other things.

February was a few days from pushing January to the side, and we would be welcoming Spring soon after. I shook a tree as I passed it, the snow falling from the branches, but it did not break. I walked down the small path and stood among the ruins of the original house. My own cottage was closer to the main path, separating my homes, my memories. I looked up at the strong tree tree that stood in the middle of the house. I was reminded of the story I read to the young Master, the Phoenix bird, rising from the ashes, as I circled the tree. A low, long branch jutted out, reaching toward the graves and I pulled myself up to sit in the crux of it.

Apple picking has been introduced to us at a young age and we each had been given a tree to take care of as we grew. I looked around the skeletons the dormant trees had become and located the small clump of trees that had been planted when we were born. Hopping down, I walked over to them, still marked off by the now leaning iron fence with small plaques that Papa had made - Danny and my trees were the biggest, and the girls were big and strong as well.

"At least we are resilient," I said, pressing my hands into the bark. I laid my head on it and found myself replaying the day that I came back and found the home already gone, the embers of the night's fire were all that was left, clinging to the wooden beams. The village elders had been standing with buckets, had slowly left, as I had. They must have placed the stones beside Mama and Papa. I closed my eyes; it had taken almost three months before I could stand by the trees or even think about the graves and not break down. Being back on my land was both a blessing and a curse.

The snow began once more and I moved back to the cottage. My dog, I called him Brit, was waiting for me by the fireplace and was wagging his tail as we sat on the small chair. I petted him and let myself fall asleep.


	5. Sebastian POV

_My love,_

_The Master has been breaking. I am not sure if this is good, or bad, or if I should be particularly proud of it, but he has been at least acknowledging that having you here was 'nice' as he said. I think he wishes he could call you back. I have pressed him, but he isn't telling me. In other news, the young Master is enjoying school life, once more, a bit too much. He has sent several letters asking if he could have a Tutor. I heartily recommended one I know to the Master, and he didn't snap at me. See, my love? Progress._

_The Manor is quiet, and my bed is so empty. I have spent time back in my old habits, and I am going to confess it's not totally unwelcomed. Perhaps we were suppressing each other as much as supporting. Ah, a debate best left with the Undertaker, not in a letter to make you worry._

The King's Valentine's Ball came and went, and the first signs of an early spring were popping up. I carried the large bowl of apples to the dining room and set them beside the salad, once more pleased that the trees I had planted on the back parts of the garden had been sheltered enough to stay alive. Finnian had even bought a few to place in the greenhouses, and we had a thriving garden under his thumb, and fruit bearing trees were producing.

"Apples, again?"

"It is healthy for you, my Lord," I responded, smoothly picking one and quartering it. I offered him a slice and he sighed, taking it.

"How are you even growing these?"

I looked at him and smiled. "You have been eating fresh fruit for two months, and now you wonder where they come from?"

"It was nice at first. Now? Apple this, apple that, pears, and plums. Will oranges finally make it to the menu?"

"Would you wish them too?"

The Master shook his head. "Just tone down the apples. I have no idea what you are trying to do with all that."

A knock on the door made the Master pause as he sat and I turned as the door opened. It was one of the teachers from Weston. He smiled quickly and came in as Mey-Rin pushed the door wider.

"Ah, I do apologize for the early morning visit, Earl Phantomhive," he said. "Professor Mishu, Chinese Studies. Your son - Master Vincent - is a bright man, bright and quick. Ah… so quick he actually is bored in my class."

The Master stiffened. "What has he done?"

"Are you aware he has failing marks after two months? He is wonderful in class, not a real discipline problem. The times he has been sent to me, he has mentioned he had a Tutor and how he left. Master Vincent is very quick minded, as I said, and his teachers agree he is more than capable of doing the work, however when he turns in work, there are drawings on the pages," Professor Mishu said, pulling out a folder from his case. He flipped it open and slid one of the pictures to the Master.

I glanced at it as the Mistress was coming in and I hid a smile I knew I would hear about when we were alone. I assisted the Mistress in settling the young Mistress into her chair and Mey-Rin fed her. The Mistress was introduced to the Professor and frowned when the Master asked for the Professor and I to withdraw to the reception room. "Just a small matter with the school," he said as he passed the Mistress.

They sat on the couches and I stood behind the Master. The Professor frowned and looked up, eyeing the Master for a moment longer. "Earl Phantomhive, I don't mean to raise questions regarding his behavior, but I did look at his record. This is not the first time he has been to Weston. May I ask why he was asked to leave?"

"He set some papers alight," the Master said at last. He sighed and looked at the Professor. "And has he done anything similar?"

"No, he has not done anything like that. Although it does explain a few thing," the Professor said. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. "I don't mean to question things, but I think Master Vincent is missing his Tutor more than he realizes." He paused and looked at the Master for a bit longer. "He has been heard saying that he may not come back next year."

The Master stood, his energy shifting. "He has no say in that matter. He is a child, and I expect you, Professor, to be the voice to remind him while he is in your care."

The Professor nodded and stood. "I shall continue to do so, and remind him of this evening when I meet with him for tutoring." He shook the Master's hand and smiled a little. "Regardless of what happens, I will make sure he gets his grades up."

I showed the Professor out and found the Master back in the dining room. The Mistress was bringing a small bowl over to Mey-Rin, who was bouncing the young Mistress on her knee. The Master was poking the fruit remaining on his plate, the last bits of egg and toast on his fork. I moved around the room, picking up used plates and tea cups, placing them on a tray and stood by the Master.

"Say it."

"My Lord?"

"The picture Vincent drew."

"Ah, yes. The young Master is indeed talented."

He shifted and placed his fork down a bit too loudly and turned his face toward me slightly. "Sebastian. The drawing was clearly of the Tutor. In a dress. A red dress."

"Yes, it did appear to be of the likeness of the Tutor."

"Gods alive, why are you being stubborn?"

I paused for a moment and slid my eyes down toward him. "Is that a question to be answered?"

He pushed back and got up, brushing past me and turned, hissing, "By all accounts the Tutor was a man. And here is my son drawing… him as her."

"Everyone one inside and beyond this house knows that the Tutor was a man. And no one beyond us three knows that was false."

The Master sighed again. "Ready the automobile. I think I need some time with my son. This is pretty serious if one of his Professors came to talk to me."

"Yes, my Lord. Shall I pack a lunch for later?"

He tilted his head, gazing at the Mistress and young Mistress. "A picnic does sound nice. Just, please, no apples."

I suppressed a smile. "Of course, my Lord."

I told Baldroy to pack a few sandwiches, that the Master would be picnicking with the young Master and wanted sandwiches.

"We seemed to have a very healthy apple tree in the greenhouse," he muttered as he moved another bag of apples out of the kitchen and into the store room. "And pears. Perhaps I can make some fruit salad for them both?"

"That sounds delightful," I said. I readied the automobile and picked up the basket, checking the contents - a few cucumber and chicken sandwich sandwiches, jam and plain scones, a fruit salad, and two generous helpings of apple pie. "Thank you very much, Baldroy."

The drive to Weston was quiet and peaceful. The Master was flipping through files and sat in his own world. I was able to drift into mine. So the young Master was rather underperforming now that he was at school. It was not like him, for the Professor was right, the young Master was very smart. Danny and I had often walked the Manor and the grounds, discussing how the young Master could rule the business world and the Underbelly. He finally was fluent in French by the time the first term with Danny ended and had memorized several poems in Latin by the time Danny was dismissed. I turned down the lane, the school spreading around us as we drove deeper into the grounds. When the Master was younger, a few years after our Contract was made, we had investigated at the school, making the Master much more inclined to send his own child there.

"Stop here," the Master said, tapping the glass that separated us. "I shall fetch my son. Set up a place to eat somewhere overlooking the Thames."

"Very good my Lord."

I took the basket and found a lovely spot between two trees, where the sun was hitting it, warming the spot. It was March, but the cool in the air was still not signaling an early spring was approaching. I heard the Master talking and turned, catching the eye of several other students. Weston was an all-boy school, and was known to be the place for Nobles and Elites to send their sons to be groomed into better Nobles and Elites. I stood still and waited for my Master.

"But it's just not exciting, father," the young Master said, sighing. He shrugged and frowned. "I hoped there would be more time to do things outdoors."

"You are here for an education, not to be running around like the common refuge," the Master said, looking down at his son. "I know you had a lot of freedom with the Tutor, but now is not the time to have fun. You have much to learn. And will have much to learn when you come back after you graduate."

The young Master saw me and simply nodded. "Yes, father."

The two sat quietly and ate the prepared lunch, the Master scowling as he opened the sandwich he was handed after a bite and glanced at me. Baldroy had chopped up one of the many apples and added it to the chicken salad sandwich. I smiled a little; ah, that was my best revenge I never did.

"Father?" The Master looked at him. "Do you think…. Next year, could we maybe consider a Tutor again?"

"Vincent," he sighed and put the sandwich down. "You had a year with a Tutor, and it did increase your knowledge, and it did put you back on track with your peers. So why would you want to change that?"

The young Master swallowed some of his sandwich - he got a cucumber one - and glanced at me and then back at the Master. "I miss Mister Hyde."

The Master stiffened and looked at me. I gave the barest of shrugs. I had no involvement in this. "Well, Mr. Hyde is not coming back. He… he has another post."

"Father - I know I said he was a liar, but I didn't mean it."

"Vincent, please, don't say anymore on the topic," the Master said, and closed the basket. He turned and looked at his son. "I sent him away because he upset you. It doesn't matter he was a wonderful teacher, brought you back to us, or he saved your life. You were scared of him, you do remember that, yes?"

The young Master nodded and put his half-eaten sandwich down.

"Mr. Hyde, no matter what you saw, or believe, is best somewhere else. Your safety is my main concern. I work hard to do so - to keep you from all the things I had to go through. From doing things in desperation."

I would have leered at the Master if his son wasn't there. Desperation had saved the Master more times than he would ever know. It had placed him the path of danger, in the arms of killers, in the very heart of Hell even, but he always survived. I may not need a body to house the Soul, but it helped to fulfil the Contract. I had swept him up more times than even I could count, and I remembered almost everything. I could have laughed - save his son from doing things in desperation! Did the Master not see that the was doing something at this very moment in desperation? He was on the verge of begging now as he looked at the Master. I sighed; it was the same look that the Mistress used when she was about to ask for something that would make the Master brustle and then cave.

"Father… I made a mistake. I don't mind if Mister Hyde is…" he leaned forward and whispered, "Misses Hyde. Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?" He frowned and looked at the river. "I don't like it here. I miss Bard and Finny. I… I miss mother." He looked down and opened the basket and opened one of the boxes, and smiled. "Oh! Fruit salad!"

The Master turned and looked over his shoulder at me. "Sebastian, we are going home in a few minutes. If you could… contact the Palace? May as well get some other work done while we are here."


	6. Sebastian POV

There was a calmness to the Manor for a week after the Master met with the young Master, and Finnian began moving the plants from the greenhouse to the yard and gardens. I was standing in the window on the second story, watching the servants move about and prepare the front garden. The Mistress and young Mistress were outside as well, the baby was now nine months old and enjoyed trying to pull herself across the floor, crawling over the carpets. She now was on the grass, plucking at the grass and laughing.

"It feels like the calm before the storm," the Master said, stepping to stand beside me. "The other day, with Vincent. I would appreciate your continued support in this matter."

"You did make a promise to me and the Tutor," I said. Looking at him I took a deep breath, not mistaking his ever lovely Soul. "I will not mention the many other promises you have also made over the years."

"Yes, so you like to remind me. Frequently these days." He placed a hand on the window and leaned his head on it, watching the activity below. "I feel as if my family is going to be taken apart if I let her back in. Sebastian, please, understand this. I have promised you me, and I expect that my son is safe. I once asked the Tutor if… should there be a time when I am gone and Vincent is needing protection," he paused. "I once trusted him. And he… was very good for the house." He sighed and looked up at the sky as the clouds passed. "I agree with Vincent, I do miss seeing him around."

I didn't miss the way he once more was referring to Danny as 'he' - there wasn't anything manly about Daniella. I licked my lips as the memory settled in on how un-manly she really was. Something flickered about me and I glanced back out of the window, focusing. "My Lord," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "A car." I watched as a police car came up the lane and those who were standing in the yard watched as it came up.

"We better…" the Master said. I nodded and followed him down the stairs and out to the front steps. As we got to the front steps one of the Metro Police officers got out and tipped his hat to the Mistress and walked up the stairs.

"Earl Phantomhive?"

"Yes," the Master said, looking the police officer over. "How can I help you?"

"Your son, Vincent Phantomhive, was arrested."

"Excuse me?"

"Does he attend Weston school?"

"He does. What is happening? Why was he arrested? He is only a child! He is only nine years old!"

The Mistress looked up as the Master was talking to the Officer. I watched as she moved toward the other household members and looked at us with concern.

"We were alerted that he was trying to buy passage aboard a train."

"To where?"

The officer smiled a bit. "He said to Wales. He said he was going to bring his Tutor back home."

I stiffened and watched the Master's reaction. He turned and gripped the stone railing and shook his head, letting his breath out. "Oh dear lord. That isn't half as bad as I feared."

"Earl, your nine year old son is looking for a teacher. He ran away from school," the Officer said confused.

The Master gave a small laugh and nodded. "Yes, well he was recently sent back to school, and my son is having a hard time adjusting to the change."

The officer frowned and looked over to me, and back across the grounds, now the Mistress was walking up the stairs, and Finnian was watching the young Mistress.

"What in the world? Why are the police here, Ciel?"

The Master brought her into his arms and smiled a bit. "Vincent ran away from school."

"Oh dear! Where is he Officer? Do you have him?"

The Master brought her focus back to him. "He was arrested for trying to buy a train ticket to Wales."

"Wales?" she asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. "But... why?"

"He was going to get his Tutor he said, ma'am," the officer replied.

"The last post that the Tutor had was in Wales, my Lady," I said, turning. "He must have thought he had returned there."

"When you saw him last week, Ciel, did Vincent sound or look like he wanted the Tutor back?" she shook her head and looked at the others. "I should have kept him here and insisted we hire the Tutor back or a new one."

The Master thanked the officer and untangled himself from the Mistress. The officer walked down with him and the Mistress turned to me. "Oh god, Sebastian whatever made Mr. Hyde simply leave? I can't believe it was just because Ciel let him go. And over making VIncent cry!"

I looked at her for a moment and smiled slightly. "It seems a shallow reason, doesn't it?"

She bit her lip and looked back over to where the Master was talking to the officer. The officer was telling him that the young Master was in the downtown cell, a tactic made to scare him, and he was not harmed. The Master called up to us, saying he was riding down to the station, and would bring back the young Master for the weekend. I nodded and sighed; I would have to pick them up in a few hours. I was eager to hear why the young Master was suddenly changing his mind.

"Sebastian?"

I looked back at the Mistress and nodded at her.

"Do you think we can change the menu?"

"What do you wish to have, my Lady?"

"Well, applesauce for Rachel - she absolutely loves it. However you make it is very appealing to her. But perhaps some chicken and potatoes for the rest of us?" She sighed and wrinkled her forehead. "I'm not sure what is going on between you and Ciel, but please," she turned and placed a hand on my arm, "fix it. I'm not sure I can listen to another long list of how the staff is horrid and he should let them go." He lifted her eyes to the sky and sighed again. "I do miss when things were simple."

I bowed my head and suppressed a smile. "Yes, my Lady. I will try to get to the heart of the matter. Perhaps, with this incident with the young Master, things could be changing."

I laughed to myself: simple! Ah when was the Phantomhives ever simple? My Master was arrogant and spoiled, greedy and manipulative. He casted aside things and people when he was tired. He protected fiercely those he loved and cared for, which was a mighty short list. He would put his boot in any man's face for simply saying something wrong, and wouldn't hesitate to point his ever ready gun in the Underbelly's face. He also made passionate love to the Mistress and coddled his children, especially the young Mistress. He would sit in uncomfortable chairs to simply let her sleep in his arms, staring at the paperwork I brought, letting it stack high and drank cold tea, to wrap her in the softest of fabrics, bring her the most extravagant toys, and would cloth the Mistress in any fashion she dreamed of.

'Simple' did not come to my mind when discussing the Master.


	7. Danny POV

_My dear love,_

_Summer has arrived, and the land is beginning to show it! I have a small patch of plants in my yard that Finnian would be proud of. I have some carrots and have to keep the goats away from the small lettuce heads that are coming up beside the pin. I'm going to rebuild this week to make sure there is more room between their eager mouths and mine!_

_Easton is lovely. The people here are just as I remembered - friendly and kind. I have started to make friends with a few of the farmers, and we are going to help supply the town store with fresh fruits and produce. The locals are thrilled to have the apple orchard back and about to produce again._

_On a personal note, my dear love, I miss you. Not really a surprise, I am sure, but I miss Feeding with you. Is that an odd thing to say or think? I miss having you beside me as I am Feeding, and your comforting hand in mine as we walk back home…._

The warm breeze was welcoming. I had been cooped up on the farm for too long and even the beautiful trees were itching my skin as I walked around them, watering. I left for Trumball, a town further away, under the cover of late evening. I ran. It felt so freeing to run, jump, soar for a little while. I wasn't as graceful or majestic as Sebastian, and I had not yet, literally, earned my wings, but I could run across the treetops, and lightly land on tree branches, sending up birds and startling the squirrels. I dropped down near the town, a bustling city really, and walked down the alley, blending into the evening crowd.

I picked up a few things such as a new dress and fabric to repair some pants that my lovely dog, the lovely hunting dog he is, thought attacking them as they dried by the fire was his way of protecting me. Brit had sulked afterwards and had hid under the bed as I scolded him. I smiled as I walked down the street and passed a pet shop. Maybe a small treat for him, since he was still a puppy.

The items fit into the small bag I had slung around my waist, to safely carry things as I traveled. The Hunger was growing and I turned back to where I came, walking down side streets to avoid unnecessary Souls.

"A beautiful lady should not be going around unchaperoned," a man's voice said as I walked across the dark street. I turned and saw a man smiling and walking toward me. Another man was behind him, shuffling slowly.

"I am quite fine, thank you," I said. His Soul would do, but I didn't want to be seen by the other man. Perhaps if I stalled, or appeared to finally give in after the other man left, I could Feed. "The streets seem safe enough."

"And you look lovely," he replied. "I merely wish to help you stay that way."

I lifted an eyebrow and looked him over. The other man had disappeared between two houses. "Thank you kind man. I'm still getting my bearings around here."

"New to the city? Ya, you sound like you came from the boat," he said, stepping beside me. "I like foreign women. You all need protecting."

"I do not need protecting," I said, an edge to my voice as I slide my eyes away from him. The streets were empty. As we passed another alley, I suddenly turned and grabbed the man by the throat and pulled him into the darkness.

But the darkness wasn't still and suddenly a flash of a blade and a stinging of a fist came at me, catching me unaware as I was pulled now to the ground. I kicked and was free for a moment, then the man gripped my throat and leaned into my face, his hot breath now stale and venomous.

"Stay down, woman. In your place," he growled, and I kicked him in the lower region, sending him stumbling back. Another two stepped up and kicked me in the stomach, sending me back to my knees. One yanked my hair and I gasped at the pain. The one who had kicked me grabbed my left arm and wrenched it back snarling as I did the same back. But his was not a Demon's growl, it was a Human. A hungry Human for a different meal all together. I shook my head as he leaned into my face.

"Bitch," the original man spat and slapped me in the face. His hands ripped my dress away and he laughed as his hands traveled lower, and I only thought of my beloved, my Sebastian, was the only one who had any right to lay hands on me, and I lunged.

I lost my form, sinking my claws into them, ripping them, making their screams curl into the night, cutting off as soon as they began, I pulled the man's arms from their bodies, and I snapped their necks. My eyes focused on the air above me as I ran, and I leaped. I stumbled and fell to the ground, my bare knees and legs scratching the dirt. I scrambled up to stand, to run once more, and I found the leaves of the trees, slapping me, the branches unyielding as I pushed them back. Tears were running down my face and I was sure I looked like a right mess with blood streaking down my dress. I finally got to my cottage and I fell down before the door, the chickens scattering in a squawk and clucked as they moved to find more food in the dirt. I crawled into the house, Brit barking at me, sniffing me, and finally snatching the treat that I had gotten.

I crawled into the bed, dirty and tired. I would clean up in the morning. I would face what had happened in the morning.

Brit woke me up with his deep woofs. They were urgent and he was pacing the front of the door, digging his claws on the stone floor, and jumped up on the door.

"Brit, down, common, let's see what is going on." I grabbed my shotgun, just in case a wild animal was attacking the chickens or had gotten into the goat pen. I opened the door and winced as the beams of sunlight hit my eyes, and Brit went off in the direction of the grove of trees blocking the lane and the cottage. I narrowed my eyes and tried to see, but the blinding light and the aches all over my body made me acutely aware I had not Fed during my attack. I heard a noise and Brit's barking stopped and started at a much less urgent tone.

"Brit? Common boy," I said, rounding the clump of trees. I heard rustling rush at me as I suddenly had my hearing back, and I cocked the gun and took aim at the now moving trees. Brit ran out and I re-aimed, as a hand stuck out, and an arm emerged, and suddenly -

"Earl Phantomhive!?"

"Ah, could you, perhaps move that gun from my face?" he said, eyeing me. His contract shone bright under his patch and I could see he was not mad as he said it, rather, trying to be casual. "I come in peace - no redcoats coming here."

"I am not sure that is a wise thing to even joke about in front of an American, my Lord," another voice said, and another face emerged from the trees. I lowered my gun a fraction and blinked. His… red eyes. His smile and…

"Sebastian," I whispered. It was like a wave came over me and I surged forward, my fingers went numb, the gun slipping to the ground, and suddenly I was facing the ground as well. But I felt hands, strong, strong hands, on me, picking me up. I looked up and as my world went black, I saw the red eyes of my lover boring into mine.

Once more I was awoken to Brit, but this time it was his tongue bathing my face. I pushed him off of me and I groaned. My body hurt about as much as it did when I was going through my change. I groaned again as I tried to sit up.

"Lay back down, for god's sakes!"

I opened my eyes and saw the Earl bending over me, his hands on my shoulders, easing me back. "Please… stop," I said softly. "You have a lot to explain."

He lifted his hands and backed off, sitting in the chair beside the couch I was laying on. I heard the pouring of water and smelled the sweet aroma of tea. I closed my eyes and breathed in deep. I had acquired the taste of fine tea during my time as a Reaper, but it was my year at the Phantomhive Manor that made it even sharper. American tea did not satisfy that need for the strong and fine flavor that British tea leaves held.

"My lady," Sebastian's soft voice said, as I opened my eyes and there was a fine bone china cup with matching plate, being handed to me. I sat up and winced again, breathing through the pain. I took the cup and brought my eyes up to meet his.

"Thank you."

He handed a cup to the Earl and sat down as well, eyeing me. "We do have much to explain," he said after a moment. "But so do you."

I eyed him and frowned. "My bruises I am assuming because I can't think of anything else that would warrant an explanation."

"Shall I go first?" the Earl said after a moment. I simply eyed him and he sipped his tea and sighed. "Vincent has been having some… problems -"

"Not my problem," I said, moving a bit slower than I wished as I got up. "I solved all the ones I could. And now I am no longer under your thumb. I'm not tied to you or the young Master."

"Tutor -"

"Daniella. It's Daniella," I said, spinning around, the teacups flying out of both our hands. I leaned into his face and I took in a deep breath. His Soul was so beautiful. It smelled so wonderful. A hand clamped on my back and pulled me back, and I was facing Sebastian instead. His hands were on my cheeks and he was looking at me with concern.

"My Lord, please step outside."

The Earl walked calmly across the small space and slipped out of the house, Brit trotting after him. Sebastian stroked my cheek and brought me back to focus on him.

"Danny. Daniella… my love. You haven't Fed."

I shook my head, not even trying to hide anything anymore. "How did you find me?"

He chuckled. "Your letters." He reached into his jacket and pulled out the stack I had sent by now. He placed them on the table and reached back in and pulled out a small vial. "A gift for the host," he whispered as he put it in my hands. "Drink."

I looked down and he pushed it up a little.

"You have had this before," he said gently, opening the cap. "When the need was too great."

"Leave," I whispered, bringing the bottle to my lips. The taste of pure Soul hit me and I only sipped it once, already feeling better. "Please, Sebastian, take your _Master_ and leave."

"My love," he said frowning. "The Earl has come to try to bring you back."

I replaced the small cork on the bottle and looked at him. I saw his eyes widen as I took a step forward and thrusted the bottle back into his hands. "You stated the answer to his question in your statement. _Try_. He may try to do anything he wishes, Sebastian, but he is not going to walk into my home - on my land - and find me willing."

Sebastian stepped into my space, closing the distance. "You know the state the Master has been in. The way the young Master has been acting." He paused and frowned. "Why would you push him away?"

I looked at him and then back at the closed door. "What? The young Master has had…" I sat down and looked down at my hands. "I never heard that - read that."

Sebastian sat beside me. "I wrote about how he ran away from school a few months ago. I found it strange you didn't write about it, but I thought maybe you wanted to only know about the good things."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry! I just reacted and thought the Earl was here because he wanted to show off. He… he is really here to bring me back?"

"Shall I fetch him so you can talk to him? We traveled a long way to only go back," he said with a smile. "And not even a kiss," he added.

I threw myself at him and his arms wrapped around me. I sank into them and turned my face into his. "I'm glad you're here. I am so sorry I asked you to leave."

He laid his lips on mine and smiled, making me smile as well. He turned his head and kissed me, softly, and then deepening it as I pulled him closer. I felt the tears slipping down my face and he brushed them away, gently holding me tighter.

"Shall I go fetch Earl Phantomhive now?"

I nodded and he helped me stand up. He left me and I smoothed down my dress, the same one I realized that was still bloody. I moved, stronger now, but still feeling the beating on my body. I walked behind the dressing screen as the door opened. "I'm changing, but please, take a seat. I… I profusely apologize, Earl Phantomhive," I said as I heard them move across the room.

"Sebastian explained. I suppose living on your own has made you suspicious. And I am very much to blame for that. I didn't let you explain when I told you to leave, and I am sorry for that."

I blinked as I peeked around the screen. My eyes met Sebastian, who was sitting, facing me, and was looking down at Brit and then at me. The Earl - the King's Watchdog - was apologizing? "Go on," I said, and ducked back to put on my loose work shirt.

"Vincent has been purposely failing his classes and has run away," the Earl went on. He cleared his throat. "He was caught trying to buy a ticket to Wales."

I came around the screen, catching the small bit of desire that zipped through Sebastian's eyes as I walked. I looked down at my pants, loose to let the cool air flow as I worked, and my blouse was buttoned just past my breasts. I raised an eyebrow back and he simply smiled.

"Wales?" I asked as I sat down, now on the chair the Earl had sat in earlier. "Why… oh, my previous posts." I said, thinking back to the many conversations I had had with the young Master about my previous families. They were all based on my Reaps, but no one needed to know about that. "He thinks I am still in England."

"At first, yes," the Earl said. "He found letters saying you were in America." He sat back and looked at me for a moment. "He tried to buy a ticket to a steamer to come here a few weeks ago. I thought I had settled the matter earlier, but apparently he is determined to have you back," he paused and added, "Daniella."

I sighed and closed my eyes. The young Master was actively trying to find me? "Why? Why does he want me back? He called me a liar, and you took it and threw me out." I felt myself grow hotter and felt Sebastian's hand slide over mine. "You can't come here and say he wants me and then just expect me to drop my life here and come back."

The Earl looked surprised and looked at Sebastian and then at me. "I thought you would be glad to come back. To be tutoring Vincent again. Or at the very least to be with Sebastian."

"I would be welcoming the offer, for all those things, if I knew why. I was… rather placed into a situation where I told the young Master my deepest secret and he got scared. I shouldn't have done that, but I did what I had to, to calm things." I looked at Sebastian with a glare and sighed, softening my gaze towards him and looked back at the Earl. "He can manage without me. He is smart enough to do that."

"Yes, he is smart, but he also is a child," the Earl said. "A child who made a mistake and is paying for it, and realized it wasn't a good choice."

"We all make choices," I said, standing and walking to the tea kettle. "Like telling me not to ever come back. To not show my face ever again to you - or to the young Master," I said, placing the kettle on the stove. I turned and looked him in the eye and added, "Earl Phantomhive."

He hung his head for a moment and then laughed. "You are a Demon for sure."

"I learned it from the best. Now, kindly leave."

"I deserve that," he said at last. "But Vincent deserves his tutor back. So you can throw me out, but I'll come back." He stood and walked over to the kitchen table and placed a paper on it and looked up at me. "You will come back for him."

"The only way I do that, is because he begs." I took a step forward and smiled. "And I Mark him."

He inhaled and looked at me. "I thought you were the Demon with Humanity."

"I'm also the Demon who has been hurt by having Humanity in me. I've worked hard, so very hard, this past several months bringing things back from the dead." I stalked the Earl like he was pray and smiled as he took a small step back. I felt Sebastian rise out of his chair and his eyes on me, watching, ready - ready to defend his Master. His Mark. His Contract. I pointed at him and snarled, "Leave and take your cleverly disguised, justice serving, manipulating _Master_ out of my house." I looked back at the man in front of me, the Human who had ripped me deeper than my claws had when he told me to leave those I had learned to love. I had opened myself to be loved again. "You, Earl Phantomhive, are the problem to your son's downfall. I don't trust you - do you understand? You made a decision, to come here, to stand before me, thinking that you could appeal to me and my _heart_ , my _Humanity_? Oh, no, that child - that _boy_ \- will not automatically get his Tutor back. His Tutor who 'lied' about being a man, who was beginning to be true to _her_ self, would come back because he wants her back? No. No… leave. Before you both are torn apart."

Sebastian pulled the Earl away and stared at me, his eyes a mix of awe, hardness, and understanding. I let myself burst out as the door closed, I filled the very spaces that they had been in with my darkness, my sadness, my cries. I knocked over the table, shattered the earthen pots I used, tore the cottage I had carefully built, down around me, trying to bury the parts of me that had made me Human.


	8. Sebastian POV

I sat on the stone wall, watching the smoke slowly rise from the cottage. I had to listen to Danny as she spat her words at the Master, I had to listen to her destroy herself, her world she had made here. I ached to keep her whole, and innocent. My exquisite Demon. But I also wanted the Master to be cut deeply as I had when he sent her away. When he broke his promise and justified it. He had disguised himself as a man who performed good and kind acts for those less fortunate, yet had the motives as selfish as his title suggested. He was an Earl. He was the King's Watchdog. He manipulated plenty of Nobles and Underbelly alike to get ahead. He had the kind of Soul a Demon longed to consume.

I walked the stone wall, and trailed my fingers over the stones. He was all that was 'evil' in Humans. Yet he had the purity of something hidden. Even approaching mid-30s, the Master was still a child. He still longed to have childlike things - a family, love, peace. He longed to protect what had once been brutally ripped from him. He didn't want the young Master or young Mistress to experience pain. He had banished pain away from their lives as best as he could. And he did it well. Until the pain faded and reason set in. Until the fairy tale life was torn down.

A laugh bubbled up in me and I let it spill over my lips. Oh the meal he was making! Oh the depths of depravity and the heights of elation he tried to balance! I turned back toward town and walked the path, knowing that the Master would be demanding I return with him to London. He had already packed his clothes to go back. He had already asked to find a train back to the docks. He hadn't realized that the words that Danny spoke were the same he had spat at her, and she demanded him to face them, not run from them.

And he was good at running. I sighed; and I had to run with him. I passed by the stores and several young girls sighed and giggled as I walked past. I could have any of them eager to try for a kiss, for a glance, for something other than giving up their Souls to me, but I continued. I had a very determined and lovely Demon I was longing for. And she had been gloriously unafraid to tell my Master what he should do. She was the one I would walk proudly into Hell and present to the Underworld as Mine. Danny, in those moments of listening to the Human plead and use reason and logic, had realized none of that mattered to us. Not really. We had base needs: Souls and company. Souls to Feed us, company to keep us grounded. Some were brief, others were a few moments longer. But there was always that shift in power because I was the Master of my Master. Demons always were above Humans in the power struggle.

"Wipe that smirk off your face," the Master said as he opened the door to our rented rooms. "Lizzie already is talking about going up to Boston to shop. And of course Vincent is asking about… the Tutor."

"Her name is Daniella."

He sighed and shook his head. "Are we suddenly going to accept that _Daniella_ is a female Tutor?"

I snorted. "That is what she is, my Lord."

"What she is is my son's _Tutor_. I don't care what gender she is."

I eyed him and found no deception in that statement. "Are you saying it was wrong to throw her out because she is _female_?"

The Master whirled around and stopped in his pacing. "I am saying, Sebastian, that there were other ways in revealing one's identity. You don't want me screaming 'Demon' when you walk in, do you?"

I pictured him doing such and laughed.

"Quit laughing. Our Contract is our secret. It's what will be my ultimate demise. Just like the - Daniella - if this is talked about, we are in trouble, confusion at the utter base level. I don't know who would believe it anyway, but there would be, pardon me, Hell to pay."

"Actually, not too far off, my Lord," I said plainly.

He shook his head. "I kept her secret because it was my duty to do so. You set my son up for a heartbreaking revelation. He adored the Tutor, do you see? He thought Mr. Hyde could do no wrong. And in an instant, he was rocked to his core about this. I had to protect him. I had to send her away."

I watched as the Master talked, and felt the passion come off him as he spoke. "So sending Danny away was a backhanded way of punishing me," I said calmly. His small twitch of his lips told me I was right. "Perhaps you underestimated how resilient that bond between student and Tutor was." I looked at him with a small smile; we had been student and Tutor as he grew up as well.

He rolled his eyes and turned away, pacing once more. "Don't say Vincent would have understood if he was exposed to her and she had not left."

"You accepted that she was disguised as a man for her protection. You never let her fully explain it to the young Master. You merely dismissed her."

"I was under no such obligation to give time for her to explain further," he said, anger lacing his words. "I saw my son crying - hurting. I never want that for him. You… you know why I can't stand to see such pain in his eyes, such anger, such confusion! One day he will learn to handle each of those emotions - but not at the age of nine! And now! Now, he is lashing out again with these two times he has run away, and I am closing that door for him. You heard her, she isn't coming back. We should pack up and catch a ride home."

I placed a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed, making him stop and turn. "Perhaps he had realized what he did was done in the heat of that emotion. My Lord, perhaps you should do the same."

"Leave me be."

"My Lord -"

He took his eyepatch off and glared at me. "Sebastian, this is an order - leave me."

I felt the burning and gave in. "Yes, my Lord," I whispered with the same harshness and turned and left.

I left him be for two days, doing only a few tasks as needed to get through the day. I was coming out of his room, the one he was using to finalize a few things and hide from me as I had suggested we wait a few days so the Mistress could spend some proper time in America, when a small voice drew my attention.

"Sebastian?"

I turned and saw the young Master in the shadows, at the end of the hall. "Yes, young Master?"

"Can… can I see where Mist - Misses Hyde - lives?"

I looked back at the closed door where my Master was once more pacing. I looked at the child and my resolve of blaming the child faded as he took a step towards me and his eyes were filling with tears.

"Of course, young Master. Shall we go now? Your father is rather busy at the moment."

He placed his hand in mine and we walked back out of the place we were staying, leaving a message with the front desk for the Mistress and young Mistress when they returned. We walked down the main street and was leaving the town when I looked down and stopped. "Young Master, please let me carry you, the way is a bit long."

He looked at the road before us and then up at me. He shook his head. "No, I need to face her as a man." I chuckled and he looked up at me with the sudden intensity as the Master when he was challenged. "I will be a man someday! I will become Earl Phantomhive when it is time and I want the Tutor, my Tutor, to be there for that moment."

I nodded and he went on, walking now before me. Ah, how delicious would it be for Danny to hear those words coming from his mouth? I imagined how it sounded to me, and I had a Contract, I had a Soul. I continued down the road, watching the small child take steps to become something that he didn't even knew existed. Would she wait to make a Contract if he said those things to her? Would Danny wrap her arms around him and simply take the young Master's Soul because of what he had done? What the Master had done because of him? I sighed and finally placed a hand on his shoulder to make him pause.

"The gate to the Tutor's house is here, between the trees and the stone wall."

He looked at the iron gate and then at me. "Sebastian? What is the Tutor's name? I mean, besides Misses Hyde?"

I smiled and looked back at the smoke that was seen over the trees. "Her name is Daniella. Daniella Hyde."

"Daniella," he muttered. "That is a nice name."

"Yes indeed it is, young Master."

He stood beside the stones for a moment longer and then walked slowly to the gate and pushed it open. "Sebastian? Is she very mad at me?"

I could not lie to the Master, but I had no such obligation to the young Master. However…. "She is rather cross at your father, and you hurt her very much. But, when she sees you, she may not be so with you. I think this is a fine idea you have, young Master."

He nodded his head and his green eyes once more set in the task before him. To keep him safe, protected from Danny, incase I was wrong in the slightest, I walked ahead of him, pushing the overgrown branches from the path so they would not hurt him as he walked. I had not provided as much assistance for the Master when we came roaming around the front of the property two days previous. This time Danny felt us on her land and she was working about her home as we cleared the trees.

"I thought I said you should leave and take your Master with you," Danny spat as she came around from the side of the house. Her arms were full of firewood and her eyes were dull red, no longer a fire in them, which was both good and bad. I wanted that fire in her eyes and I wanted her to be knocking down the Master as he tried to justify her coming back. But the Master was not behind me, and I felt the young Master now suddenly unsure in his steps. I looked at Danny and smiled a little, I had the young Master with me, to deliver his message, his plea, in person.

"Yes, you did, and I do not wish to stop you from your activities, however," I said, pausing and looking behind me. "I have a young man who wishes to speak to you."

The young Master took a breath and stepped from behind me and slowly stood beside me. He looked at Danny and I heard his heart increase. Danny was wearing nothing on her feet, and the simple pants she wore before when I saw her with the Master. However she wore a shirt with rolled up sleeves and was not as loose as the one before. Her hair hung in a ponytail, now reaching down her back. Danny looked like a hard working woman, a real woman with all the amounts of flesh I wished to kiss and see once more.

Her eyes flashed and she placed the wood down and looked at me for a second before looking back at the young Master. "Young… Vincent," she said softly. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to ask you to come back," he said quickly. He took a breath and a small step forward. "Please? Misses Hyde? Will you come back to England?"

She stood still and looked at him for a long moment. "I don't think I can, Vincent."

I saw his lip quiver for a moment and the balling of his hands. "Misses… Hyde. Please? I am so sorry I got scared. I… I hate that I sent you away! I hate my school and the teachers! I want you back!"

Danny glanced at me again and she turned away for a moment. "Please, stop. You must learn to study and go on without me. You managed for seven months."

"Why are you being so cruel!" he shouted. "I said I was sorry! I said I wanted you to come back! My father even -"

"Your father is a fool to think that I will come back because he sent you!" Danny spat as she leaned now into the young Master's face.

I stepped in and placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling the ripple of anger subside a bit. "The young Master asked to come here on his own. The Master doesn't know I am here with him."

She looked up and slapped my hand away. "You can't do this, Sebastian. You can't make me do this."

"Our… bond," I whispered, longing to bring her into my arms, take her pain, and kiss her, passionately, possessively. But the young Master was there, and I had to protect him. "Danny, please listen to him. At least give him that?"

She looked up at me and I could see the struggle that was in her eyes and heart. She looked away at the cottage and nodded slowly. "There is some benches by the trees. The inside is rather… messy," she finally said. She led us to the benches, hidden in the shadows and sat, watching the young Master and myself as we sat opposite of her. She nodded for the young Master to continue.

"My father sent you away because I was scared," the young Master said. He twisted his hands and sighed. "I learned a lot from you, and I didn't know why you were… in that dress and telling me you were… a girl. I just thought you were very smart and… oh dear," he muttered. "Misses Hyde, may I start over?"

Danny pursed her lips and nodded.

"I ran away twice because I need you as my Tutor. I don't care that you are a woman. I don't care if you dress as a man. I need you, simply as my Tutor because you make learning fun. I never care to sit in the classroom and learn things and you would send me outside to read, or we would walk the gardens with Mister Finnian and he would talk about plants and statues. And even when you caned my hand because my penmanship was horrid, I took it. And when you made me plant the garden that I had ruined because I wasn't looking where I was running with my ball, you were teaching me to be careful. I didn't want to continue to sit in the class and my teachers tell me to sit still and not think about the outside. I wanted to run and play because it meant more that way." He paused and sucked in a deep breath. "Misses Hyde, I want you to come back to London, back to teaching me. What would your terms be so that could happen?"

I raised an eyebrow even as Danny slowly smiled. The young Master was learning something in his classes, because those words, the eloquent speech, was one even the Master would stumble to find the right words for. The young Master looked up at me and frowned, and slowly leaned into me. "Did I do okay, Mister Sebastian?"

I looked down at the boy, and nodded. "I think so, young Master," I whispered back, catching Danny's eye.

Danny sat forward and her hair hung over her shoulder a bit. "I will have to think about it. I have this farm I am building, my… farm. It will help many people in the village be able to eat and live. How can I give it up for you? For a child who says he wants me as his Tutor?"

The young Master looked up at me and back at her for a moment. "You can teach me and Rachel - we can learn how to feed villages of people. As Earl someday I can do that."

There was a moment of pause and Danny was studying her hands. I saw her Mark was red around the edges; she would have to take a Contract soon or it would bother her more than it already was. Luckily her hands were dirty and dark, so the Mark wasn't as noticeable.

"It's been good seeing you, Vincent," she said finally. "I have a lot to think about regarding our futures - if they are together or remain separate." She wiped her hands over her dirt stained pants and looked around, avoiding my gaze. "Would you like to see the farm while you are here? I don't know how long your father will keep you here," she said.

The young Master's head sprung up and his face lit up. "Yes please!"


	9. Danny POV

I held firm to my resolve - the Earl would not bring me back. But the young Master… his eyes were so passionate and so alive as he asked. He had nodded as I asked if he wanted to see the farm, perhaps to be near me, or because of real interest. I paused as we rounded the barn housing the horse I rode, a few newborn goats, and the wayward chicken. The young Master grabbed a handful of hay and offered it up to Wales, the horse looking at him for a moment and then chomping. The young Master gave a small smile and then a laugh. It cut me into my heart and I took a step back, my shoulder brushing Sebastian who was observing.

"I don't think he has smiled like that for a while."

I shook my head. "Please, don't. I need to make this decision for myself. As much as I want… to come and be with you, I have been building this life too."

He nodded and turned his watchful eyes to the young Master as he was petting the horse. I sensed that he wanted to say more, and I longed to grab him as well and shake him, yell at him, tell him of my injuries, the physical ones, the emotional ones. I wanted his arms around me to bring me closer and to hold me stronger, but I stood with my arms crossed. And I moved on with the walking around the farm, lost in watching the leaves sway and the small fruits were forming. The young Master bent and plucked a few stray weeds from the garden and pointed to a few plants.

"What are those? They look like celery," he said as he turned to look at me.

"It's rhubarb. A bitter tasting stalk, not too unlike celery, you are right. They are wonderful paired with strawberries, or just sugar. There is a whole patch of it near some of the trees on the hill," I said, pointing. The acres of trees rolled over the gentle and rocky terrain, it was my paradise I had worked winter and spring long to reclaim.

"There is a fence around those trees," he said, standing and brushing his hands off. "Why? Are they special trees?"

I nodded, the tears pricking my eyes. "Yes, Vincent, they are very special. They are trees for my family. My brother, sisters, and I."

He turned and frowned. "Your… family? But I thought you were from Wales."

Ah, sweet innocence! "No, this is my farm." I turned and looked at Sebastian and back at the young Master. "Let me make some tea and I can offer some biscuits for the way back."

Sebastian nodded and I walked back down the path, toward my cottage. The inside was still in shambles, and I had spent the better part of the past few nights in repairing some of the damage. I set the new tea kettle on the stove and rummaged for a flat wood server, placing three tea cups on it and pulling the apple scones out of the dry cupboard. I pinched some tea leaves into each of the cups and frowned; Sebastian never really drank tea. I placed the kettle on the board and walked out to where I had left them standing. I found Sebastian's black tails standing at a contrast to the green trees and beside another opening in the wall, further away from where I had left them.

"No," I whispered. I walked on, shaking my head, knowing where they were. "Oh Sebastian! No! I broke it once, he will never understand!"

I put the tray on the stone wall and ran the remaining way, stopping beside Sebastian, my face wet with tears, wept so many times for the very objects the young Master faced now. For the loss. For the confusion it would once more place in the young Master's heart. For the hope that had started filling my being as I walked beside the young Master once more, slipping into being his Tutor, telling him about the land, about the trees, about the world. As I had done once and was sure I never could do again.

I slid to my knees beside Sebastian, clinging to his jacket and his pants, leaning my head against him as I cried. "Why did you let him come? And here! Not here!"

A tiny hand was placed on my right shoulder and I looked up, my tears washing the face before me, but the green eyes were unmistakable. "Young Master…."

"Don't cry Misses Hyde. I can see you have lost so much already," he whispered and wrapped his arms around my neck. "I am sorry to have made you lose me too."

I pulled away from Sebastian and wrapped my arms around the boy, around the Soul whose Human wrappings were both like his father's and his mother's. He was quick tempered and tender hearted. He was stubborn and kind. I wrapped him harder and my eyes lingered on the six grave stones behind him. Mama, Papa, Danny, Alyse and Rose. And my eyes widened. Mine. Of course my grave was there too. I looked down at the boy who held me tight. He was not confused, he was… sad. He was sad at my loss. He wanted to comfort me. I looked up at Sebastian and got up, picking the young Master up as if he was a small boy, not close to ten.

"Do you mind if I come back to town with you? I think the Earl and I have somethings to talk about."

"Are you thinking of coming back?" the young Master whispered. He bit his lip and looked at the stones. "You… you don't have to. You have a family here."

I looked at them for a second and turned back to Sebastian and to the young Master. "I also had a family in London I loved very much. Please, don't…." I closed my eyes and set the young Master down. I leaned down and brushed some of the hairs from his face. "It will depend on how your father and mother take the news I am about to tell them." I glanced up to Sebastian. "Mainly your father."

The young Master's hand clung to mine and I looked back at him. "I shall escort you to my parents," he said, now sounding like a gentleman.

"Let me change and I will meet you on the lane back to town? I have… a few things to do quickly."

He nodded and released my hand. I started walking back to the cottage, a whirl of feelings deepening in me as I walked. "Oh! The tea!" I walked to the stone wall and turned, finding Sebastian already there, waiting to take it from me.

"Go and do what you must. The young Master and I will wait at the gate." He smiled and looked at me for a moment longer. "My beautiful woman. I want to know everything, please, may I call on you tonight?"

"You may be hurrying the Phantomhives far from me tonight," I said trying to smile. "But yes, I would love to have your company tonight."

He leaned over and kissed my nose, the gesture so simple and so chaste I blushed as I looked up at him. His eyes danced of a promise of less chaste things and I blushed even further. I turned and walked on to the cottage. I looked around and sighed. If Sebastian was able to come to see me, if I didn't send him and the Earl away, this place looked like I felt: a wreck. A wreck who had a focus and then was ripped from it. A wreck of a woman whose life was spent in protecting a lie… and I sank slowly into the chair and Brit came and lobbed his head on my lap, and gave a small woof. A lie I had created and had wanted to continue, and hated just as much. I petted his head and sighed. I had this one opportunity to put it all to rest, to create something I wanted - that was _me_. I stood and turned to my small closet of clothes and reached for the bag that sat in the back. I smiled as I opened it, the fabric dancing over my fingers. I took in my hands and frowned.

"A good scrub," I scolded myself. And a really nice warm bath. I closed my eyes and imagined Sebastian pouring water into a tub and helping me in. I turned as Brit growled out the window. I looked out and laughed. A tub of water, steam coming up, was sitting where my chickens usually were pecking. "Ah, well, a bit of my powers seem to be coming in handy."

I stripped and opened the door to the outside, peaking around it cautiously. I sensed no one and slipped into the hot water, relishing how it scolded my flesh in the best way, and I brought the bar of soap I had and rubbed it along my bruised and tired body. I scrubbed everything from my skin I could and I brought my hands up, turning them over as I scrubbed. My Mark burned as I passed the soap over it, and I winced as I washed it off. It had been slowly burning since I left London, since I had skipped Feeds, since I had tried to push away my Demonic lusts. The vial that Sebastian had brought had eased the burning, and I climbed out, reaching for the simple towel on the clothesline, thinking about one more sip.

Finally I was dry and I wrapped my long hair up into a bun, standing before the mirror and let my hair go. It cascaded down my back, around my shoulders and I smiled. The Earl had a woman who was not afraid to put him in his place. Sebastian had a woman who eagerly wanted him in her bed. The young Master had a Tutor he loved and wanted simply back. I bit my lip as I put the decorative comb in my hair. And the Mistress? She would… she would find a woman who loved her son as if she was her own. Perhaps the Earl would be stubborn and insist the Mistress leave, maybe evoke some "woman's sensibilities" and the words "delicate" or "too much" would drip from his lips. I snarled.

"You begged me like a man. I'll make you beg like a dog," I whispered as I put the matching earrings on and walked down the path, Brit happily walking beside me.

I stepped out into the lane and found Sebastian and the young Master throwing an apple in the air, catching it and tossing it back. It was simple and sweet. It was what I longed for as I had left the Manor, it was what had become my dream and nightmare as well as I worked hard to bring back myself, my balance, my past. As I waited for my future.

"Wow," the young Master said, missing the catch and only slightly noticing the apple splatter beside him.

Sebastian turned and smiled slowly. "Yes, indeed, young Master." He walked to me and took my hands, now encased in lace gloves, and tucked my left arm around his right. "May I escort you to town?"

"Yes, you may," I said, staring at him. He looked over me and chuckled.

"I thought I had destroyed that green dress quite thoroughly," he breathed as we walked. I blushed. Oh he had, and I had done the same to his jacket, and we had the most glorious night of passion, but I had saved the scraps and had restored it during one of the times I was able to manipulate my powers.

"Perhaps you can try again," I simply said, meeting the passion in his eyes.

"The Master stands no chance of denying you."

I smiled. "He will put up a good fight, I grant you that. But I am counting on him giving in. I have a few things to, as the young Master said, set as my terms to come back."

We walked the long road back into town, my elegant dress very out of place as the evening was quickly claiming the sun and working men and women were making their way home for supper. Some nodded to me as I passed, most simply stared. I walked with my head high, the Demon on my side, and the Human trailing beside me on my right. I smiled and imagined that would be the same scene for many years, if only I had my way. As Sebastian walked me up the stairs and the young Master opened the door, I chuckled a bit; oh I would have my way.


	10. Danny POV

“Oh goodness, Vincent! Look at you, your pants are all dirty,” the Lady said as the young Master knocked and the door opened. “Dear me, Sebastian - oh! Who is this?” she asked, looking me over. She took in my dress and her face softened. “A lovely dress, ma’am. Are you and Sebastian going for an evening stroll?”

“We had a rather long walk, my Lady,” Sebastian said smoothly. “The Lady Hyde is here to see the Master. Could you keep her company while I fetch him?”  

“Oh, of course! I... “ she turned to me and looked at me. “Lady Hyde? Are you… do you - well surely not,” she said, ending in a bit of a flustered remark and lead me into the small reception room. “Please, sit. We were about to have some supper, if you and Sebastian wish to join us. He rarely brings anyone around,” she said, clucking as if she was his mother.

“Thank you Lady Phantomhive, but I think we may be taking up the Earl’s time so he may not be able to join you in supper,” I said.

Her face slackened and she searched my eyes as I spoke, and then took in my appearance once more. She frowned and took me in skeptically. I smiled softly; my voice was quite distinct as a mix of my American and British accent. She leaned back a bit.

“Mister… no…” she stuttered and stood up a bit, and then back into her chair. I reached a hand out and she looked at it as if it was a foreign object. I pulled back and she frowned. “But you are the Tutor.”

“Yes, I was.”

“A man!” she said in a rush. “A… a - a woman?”

I bowed my head and sighed. “I am a woman who has disguised herself for protection. I was…” I looked at her and bit my lip. As always, I chose my words carefully. “I was in danger if someone knew I was a woman when I came to England. I had to make my living, and I needed a way to live free from the bonds our sex places us in. I dressed as a man for… many years.”

“And,” she blinked taking in my delicate dress. “You are a woman here?”

“I have escaped my dangers I think quite completely here. Nothing of my former… ties remain. I could be free to be myself - both the woman and the man.”

“What is going on!”

I looked up sharply as the door was banged closed and the Earl crossed the room in quick strides. His anger boiled as he roughly pulled the Lady up from her seat and stood before her. I rose, slowly, feeling as if I was a butterfly emerging from a slumber.

“Earl Phantomhive.”

“Misses Hyde,” he spat.

“You - you knew about the Tutor?!” the Lady said, wrenching her arm from his grip. “You knew! How long have you been hiding this?”

“For a while,” he merely said, his bright blue eyes drilling into me. “Lizzie - take Rachel and Vincent and leave. Go to dinner. I will deal with this.”

She shook her head, blonde curls bouncing. “You dismissed the Tutor because of this? Oh Ciel! How could you! You are so cruel!” She turned to me and I saw the same fire that had lit her eyes when we were sparring in the entry hall, our sabers clashing, her lunging and words just as deadly. Protecting her child. And now she looked at me and back at the Earl, and she moved past him, standing before him, that same look now turned on him.

“Lizzie,” the Earl said. “Elizabeth! Leave us!”If there had been a sharp object I wouldn’t have been surprised if she would have branded it. “No, Ciel. I am not leaving. And the Tutor - _Lady_ Hyde - is coming back with us.”

“She said she refuses!” he spat at her. He looked at me and shook his head. “We can find another Tutor and bring Vincent home from school - but it will not be this one. It was clearly a mistake to send him to school again.”

Lady Phantomhive moved quickly and the delicate hand that had held the young Mistress and caressed the young Master’s cheek, now met her husband’s firmly. The air zipped with the emotion of the act, with the meaning behind it. I stiffened and took a small step back, finding the stiff shoulder of Sebastian stopping me from backing away.

“You should be ashamed of yourself! You sent her away because Vincent was crying? Is that the excuse you will give? No, Ciel, don’t even open your mouth to protest. You deserve all the things that have happened. I dare say even Vincent has learned a lesson in this. To send a wonderful man away because _he_ was found out to be a _she_ ? Is that why Vincent called Mister Hyde a liar and threw a fit when I tried to reason with him about him being so adamant to go back to school? He was glad to have Mister Hyde gone, after being so happy. I never understood,” she said, pausing. “I may sit nicely at the meeting dinners, dance all the dances with you, not want my children to suffer like you did - like I did when we were younger. But Ciel, how dare you cover this? How dare you give into the whims of a child? No matter that he is our child, he is still that - a _child_. He only knew he hurt. And you gave in.”

She turned toward me, and took in a breath. She took in my long hair, my dress, and then turned back to the Earl after a moment. She stepped closer and softly said, “You are Earl Phantomhive because you fought. You fought to be alive, to be the man who could carry the title. You fought to let go of the past, and it’s not very far, I know. But you fought. You didn’t give in. Please, my love, stop trying to make the world perfect for our children, for us. The world is ugly and cruel.” She glanced over back at me. “Makes us do things we could never imagine. If Vincent ran away to bring his Tutor back it was not because he accepted that Mister Hyde was a woman, it was the mature realization that it didn’t matter.” She brushed past him and picked up her light jacket and Sebastian helped her slip into it. She turned as she opened the door and looked at us once more. “Vincent is a fine example you may wish to emulate, Ciel Phantomhive.”

The door closed and locked us into a dead silence, the only sound was breathing and heartbeats. A softer door closed and we were alone in the rooms. I shifted my gaze ever so slightly to the Earl and sat down. Sebastian moved to stand beside the Earl, his usual post, but he looked at me with pride. The Earl was truly being beaten at all sides.

“Well… Misses Hyde,” the Earl said at last as he sank into the chair that was vacated by his wife. “I assume you are here to give me terms if you wish to come back.”

“You assume I want to come back,” I said. I turned my head and sighed. “Yes. Yes, I do wish to return as the young Master’s Tutor. He has been suffering long enough.” I glanced at Sebastian and smirked. “I think even your _Butler_ has done a bit of his own torturing.”

“Bloody apples,” the Earl muttered as he sank into the chair more. I raised an eyebrow and looked at the Human. “What are your terms?”

“Vincent. I want his Soul.”

The Earl started up and even Sebastian raised an eyebrow in how bold I was. I looked at them both and shook my head.

“I’m not going to ask for anything more plainly. I was honest each time I was asked if I truly am happy to be the young Master’s Tutor - and it was yes. Yes I was - I could be - but he is also more than a simple student, just as I am more than a simple Tutor.” I sat forward and the smell of the Earl’s Soul danced on the air as I breathed deeply. “I am a Demon and I need to make a Contact. I have punished myself in ways you could not imagine as I have starved myself denying what I want more then just to be the adored Tutor. I want him. To protect him, to continue building him into a great man - to be ready to take the burden of the titles you will pass to him. In time, and with me by his side, as his Soul’s keeper, he will be ready to be the Earl Phantomhive and the King’s Watchdog. But I need his Soul to do so.”

He blinked and looked up at Sebastian. “You trained her well.”

Sebastian smiled and met my gaze. “Her heart is still intact, my Lord. There is nothing but truth in her statements.” He sat beside me and gathered my hands in his. “Danny needs to make a Contract before damage is done to that heart of hers,” he said, looking into my eyes. “It’s true for the young Master. It beats to protect him.”

The Earl looked away and snorted, shaking his head. “Two Demons, two generations of Phantomhives! And if I say you ask too much Misses Hyde?”

“I will destroy you,” Sebastian growled, his eyes bright and threatening, turning to his Master. “I have built the world you live in and I can take it away. I have no obligation to keep your family safe.”

“Sebastian,” I said, laying a hand on his cheek and turning his face to look at me. His eyes slid back toward me and he softened slightly. “This is a blink to us. We have eternity.”

“So why does it matter so?” the Earl said, getting up and standing before us. “If this is nothing but a passing moment, why not leave us? Consume another, make a Contract with another, and go on. Why my son?”

I looked at him and let Sebastian’s hands go. I stood, my dress flowing over me. “Because it is your son I want. And your family - your lineage, heritage, the weight you have on your shoulders… is both heavy and needed in our ever changing world. Vincent must be ready to take on each aspect of being the Watchdog. Of being a Phantomhive. Your own father - grandfather… each have passed down the two titles, each passing down the weight of that secret.”

He took a deep breath and sat back, turning from me. “If I agree,” he paused and looked at me and Sebastian. “If I agree to hand over my son for a lifetime of servitude and pain, knowing the things I know, seeing - doing - the things I have to see and do, can I have him pure until I can be sure he is ready?”

Sebastian’s hand once more slipped into mine and I turned to look down at him. He smiled and squeezed, my Mark on fire as he did so. I sat down beside him once more and took a breath. Could I hang on for more years? Could Sebastian’s own love for me, his gentle training and leading me into the darkness of London so we could Feed, keep us both satisfied until I was granted the young Master’s Soul?

“I can promise you this,” I said finally, turning to level my gaze on the Earl. “I can try. I can try to be patient and keep him ‘pure.’ But, he will have to know. He will have to understand, what I am. Who I am. That I will protect, and serve him, and will be his _Demon_ and all that it means.”

The room seemed to swirl with the ticking of time. The Earl swallowed hard and met my gaze. “When he is ready. When it’s his time to take over… I will hand him over.”

“It may not be in your timing, my Lord,” Sebastian said, pulling my glove off. He sighed and brushed over the Mark. The skin around it was raw and red, much like it had been when the Mark was being formed. “But I will keep Danny safe so that she can honor your request. In the meantime,” he sighed and pulled my face towards his, and looked up at the Earl, “you have a family to enjoy.”

He nodded and looked at me again. The Earl took his eyepatch off and I saw the Mark, the Contract, shining as he pushed his hair from his eyes. “Demon Daniella Hyde, I swear to you that when time comes, and my son is ready, or the time is ready and you must make your Contract, I will step aside and let you have him.”

I brushed my bare hand over Sebastian’s and closed my eyes for a moment, the Power flowing over me in the words the Earl spoke. Settling, taking my grounding once more from my Mate, our love, I stood once more and bowed, dropping to a knee and slowly looking up as his Contract blazed bright and true. “Thank you, my Lord.”


	11. Sebastian POV

Danny's skin was no longer a creamy white, but was still a perfect canvas for me to trail my fingers over. It was darker, tanned, molded in different ways as her powerful muscles had been used and built in the sun. I now trailed over the bruises and the outlines, the etchings of which I longed to wipe away and vanish from her mind. She had whispered the dangers she had faced and not written about, laughing as I had cupped her face, asking in earnest why she didn't. And why was she not ready to take me to the men who did this, did these things to her, to ease her mind, to ease them out of this world.

"Sebastian," she sighed as my fingers danced over the side of her body, the outline of a boot turning it purple and black. Her hand settled on mine and I looked at her. "If I asked about every scar you ever inflicted, each pain, we would be talking about them until eternity finally ended." I gave a small smile and didn't correct her. "Let this go. I am healing, slowly, but healing. That magical vial of yours has helped ease the pain."

"I don't want to ease the pain, my love. I want to take it."

She turned and sighed, her naked body meeting mine as she pressed into me more. "I need some of my own Demons to sort out," she whispered. She laughed. "Can that even happen? Can we have our own Demons?"

I smiled and kissed her head. "Yes. We can be haunted as we haunt others." I frowned and pulled back, looking at her and brushing some of her hair from her eyes. "Or… do you mean?"

She wrinkled her brow, so delicately and so lovely I kissed them away. "Sebastian, we… we…. The lores say only Fallen Angels and Demons can have … demons." She looked at me and licked her lips. "Father them with Humans. Born halflings."

"Cambions," I whispered. "Yes… they have been known to happen. But only with Humans. Demons and Humans… make cambions. The Angels and Reapers seem to agree on one thing: they should not exist."

"I'm not Human," she said, as if it was new to me. I looked down at her and slid my hands over her body, holding myself up propped on my right side, slightly over her as I drank her in.

"No, you are not."

"So private thought of a demons," she sighed and brushed her fingers around my chin. I saw the small smile dance on her lips even as a disappointment seemed to form in her gaze.

I would give her a child if I could. I would deliver the young Master to her at that very moment, and see her satisfied, if I could. I wanted her to be happy, content, not taking the scraps we could. I held her tightly and her arms wound around me.

"You are smothering me," she said, her fingers digging into my lower back. I let her go and she gasped for air. "Perhaps I am not the strong Demon I was once."

I gave her a long kiss and picked up her left hand, kissing her Mark. "Soon we will have you back in London. We can Feed there." I looked back at her bruises. "You will not last that long, I fear."

"Sebastian, I want you to meet someone - well some people," she said suddenly. She climbed out of the bed and held out her hand. I looked at her and reached for the light covering hanging off a hook. "Aw, you don't want to walk through an apple orchard naked?"

I laughed and pulled her closer. "My, my. Come to America, embrace your womanly ways, and you are suddenly dancing naked under the stars? You know what they did to women in the old days who did that?"

She smiled and gave a soft laugh, pulling me down the few inches to kiss me. "I'd burn at every stake they gave me and continue to worship you."

"I'm a Demon, not the Devil Himself," I said, opening the door and holding my hand to her. "Perhaps someday you will meet him and see."

She paused as she wrapped the thin fabric around her. "He… exists?"

"Darling, did you think Demons suddenly sprouted from the ground, ready to tempt and devour Humans? No, we were created to do such things, and we have a leader, a rather absent leader, but still one we know about." My hands covered hers and I brought her to my chest. "But I will take your worship gladly, as long as I can return it, in full," I added as I kissed her passionately. I lifted my lips off hers and gazed into the red eyes of my Mate. Ah, I did love calling her that. Mine. My possession as I was hers. "Now, who are we meeting?"

Her hand curled around mine and we walked under the stars, barefoot and unashamedly almost without clothes, back along a small path, one I had taken with the young Master that afternoon. Past the stone wall, the trees that were marked off by an iron fence, and then we stopped at the very opening to where she had found the young Master and I. The gravestones. A testament to the generation who had lived here, on the land, in the now outline of a home past the clearing.

"Papa, Mama, I want to introduce you to the man I am spending my life with," she said softly as she stood before the stones. "He isn't from town, so don't be mad, Papa. I had to travel a long way to find him," she said, looking up at me. "But I am glad I did. I had to make some hard choices once you left, but I kept the family together as best as I could."

She turned back and knelt on the ground, brushing the dirt away from the next two stones. Danny Hyde and Daniella Hyde.

"Danny," she whispered. "You taught me how to carry on and be brave. You were always telling me to stop running and ruining my dresses. We swam in the streams and climbed trees. We were each other's half." She turned to me and I knelt down beside her. "Danny, this is Sebastian. He is now taking over as my other half. You taught me well, you and Papa, as examples of what I wanted in a man. He is kind and compassionate. He is dangerous and possessive. But don't worry - he loves me." She turned to me and I leaned into her as she pulled me close. "And I love him as well."

I placed a hand on Danny's twin - the man whose name Daniella took, had become. "I wish I could have met you. But I am sure that as her twin, you would be just as fiery and stubborn and passionate and compassionate. She has a large heart for those she loves, and suppressed it more then I think she realized until she sacrificed herself. She is a truly redeemed woman," I said, kissing her gently.

"I'd like you to meet my sisters, Alyse and Rose. They were nine and twelve when they died. I… I wasn't there to help my brother protect them. I was trying to sell some of our furniture to survive the upcoming winter."

She was crying and leaned into the stones, her arms around each one, the simple carved name and dates telling a simple, stoic story that they simply were born, and simply died. The joy and pain that came between those dates fell from my beloved's eyes, her body wracked with the pain. Danny finally turned to me and crawled back to the last stone, the one that held her name. The one I had been looking at, even as the young Master was tracing his fingers over when she had found us, when her heart exploded for fear that the young Master would find himself once more standing by and casting her off.

"I need you to hear this… to meet Daniella Hyde," she said in a breath as she wiped her face and sat down, folding her legs under her. I reached for her cheek and she turned to look at me as she returned the simple kiss.

"I love her already."

"She wasn't always so loveable," she replied, sliding her hand up my arm and lacing her fingers with mine. "She was a smart girl, but rather enjoyed climbing trees too much for the other girls to play with her. Thankfully her parents understood that the farming life was hard and welcomed the rather precocious girl who liked to wear pants more. Danny and I were known as Danny One and Danny Two. He was the oldest - by a minute. But he was my big brother. Danny One made sure I was safe to be Danny Two - either in a dress or in trousers." She sighed and slid into my arms, shifting to sit next to me. "I rather like that; being who I am, no matter what that means to someone else or what society thinks."

"A woman ahead of her time," I muttered into her hair. "So far I love her."

"I joined the Army under Danny's name. It was simple enough; we looked alike enough that even those in town got us mixed up sometimes. And I went to war. I… was good with a sword. A gun. Knives. I was light on my feet from walking the tall trees to get the stubborn apples off, and I was a small man. I could slip between trees quietly and come back after I gathered intel." She looked up and sighed. "In my Human years I was a great spy. Until I was found out. Not as a woman - I… that comes next," she whispered, sorting her thoughts as she told me the story. "I was captured and tortured. A man who was also good with a sword and knives held me in his tent. Ready to kill me because I didn't say anything. I had lost my family already - why was I still protecting anyone?" She shook her head and gazed at the stones before us. "I was so scared, Sebastian. I knew what the man could do if - when - he tore my clothes off completely and saw… saw I was not a man. I saw it in the faces of the men the other night. I fought back this time - but before…. Before I didn't. I wasn't brave enough to do it."

I held her close as she turned and buried her head into my shoulder. "You were brave, so brave, my sweet Danny. If you weren't, if your death was meaningless, you would never have been asked to become a Reaper," I said softly. "Everyone who takes their lives don't become Reapers. Reapers are selected. All are to atone for the act of taking their life, but not all accept the task, or even offered."

She sat back and her lips quivered. I kissed her softly on the forehead. "I almost quiet when I was being trained. I thought an eternity being tortured Below would have been better than taking a peek into a person's Records, seeing their lives, determining if they were pure and good. Who was I to pass judgement! I had committed suicide to protect my honor! To protect my identity! I was selfish and did it only for myself, not because I was protecting my fellow soldiers. I wasn't doing any of it for them. Only me… myself."

I placed my hands on her shoulder and looked at her sternly. "You were going to be taken by Humans who didn't care that you should be loved gently. You were going to be taken by Humans who were only drooling over the temporary thoughts of war. And now where are they? Dead. Dead and paying with their Souls being reminded of the things they did in battle. Humans are messy and ugly. They terrorize each other and consume too much. And Angels come and Demons come, and we justify our slaughterings as balancing. Those who are left between - not evil enough to matter, but perhaps not stopping it either - are the ones who are taken by the evil." I pointed to the headstones of her brother and her sisters. "However the home burned, it was not you who lit the flame. It was not you who burned them. You lived and you went on. And you continued to live on even after you had to leave the Human world behind. Daniella Hyde, you wanted me to be disappointed in you? That shall not happen. You wanted me to understand what this farm, this land, this independence means to you? I do," I said, spreading my hands over her and pulling her up to stand beside me as I did the same. "I understand that the Daniella Hyde you hide in your beautiful flesh, in your deepest memories of being a Human, being a Reaper, has made you the amazing Demon. When you saved the young Master, the Reapers could have vanquished you, made you nothing. But they granted you life. Granted you freedom. Granted us to become finally wholes of our halves."

I took her into my arms and ran back to the cottage, laying her back down on the bedding, pulling off her thin covering, drinking in her naked body, the fire in me burning as I took in the way her legs curved, her hips swelled, her waist and breasts were the perfect amount of curved for just me. Just my hands to hold. No man had touched her before she became a Reaper. No man had touched her before I had. She was my perfect fit, and I held her as we joined again, her arms clinging to my body as I clung to her. We bursted apart and came back together, ready for the next graze of flesh to be delighted on, to be tasted and touched.

"Sebastian!" she panted and I smiled, pulling her closer to me, pushing us closer to dawn even as the light began to touch the darkness. "I've missed you so much."

I kissed her sizzling flesh and held her longing gaze. "I have waited so long for you, my love. I am not ever letting you go again."

Even the pull of the Master didn't stop me from taking the deepest ecstasy from her until the animals awoke and demanded attention, until the life of the living demanded we command it once more.


	12. Ciel POV

I watched my wife dress, the shadow of her silhouette taunting me as I watched her turn, her curvy figure making my fingers itch to slide over it. We had come home after dinner and had put the children to bed, and she had turned to me as I walked into the bedroom after her and looked at me as if I wasn't supposed to. She had put a hand on my chest, stopping me from unbuttoning my shirt and shook her head.

"Not tonight, Ciel. I don't care if you are letting Misses Hyde come back. I don't care if you still sending Vincent away or not. You will not be sleeping next to me tonight." She looked at the couch in the room and looked back at me. "Even that is too close, but I will permit you sleeping in the same room as I."

I knew better than to grumble; she was still mad enough to drag me to the shores and boot me back to England without a boat. I took a blanket and pillow from the bed, watching her carefully in case I made a wrong move. In the years we had been married, I had known the coldness that also came from the warmness - the very heat - of the woman I had known since we were kids. It didn't last, but this one… I merely lay in my clothes on the couch, staring at the ceiling as she undressed and slid into bed.

"Good night, Lizzie," I had whispered, as I had every night. I held my breath and turned to the wall, and closed my eyes as a small, "Good night, Ciel," finally was returned.

I smiled and fell into a fitful sleep. The dreams took over. The ones of my parents dancing, laughing, and the Manor in flames. I was stumbling down the hall, and I saw them laying on the floor, a black masked figure looming over them, and another one grabbing me… I sat up with a yelp and found Lizzie sitting on the edge of the couch, her eyes filled with concern. She had kissed my forehead, as she did to Vincent and Rachel. She pulled the blankets of the bed over me as I laid back and we just shared the look of knowing I couldn't say anything to her about what I dreamed of, and she would never ask.

I blinked back the memories and sat up watching her come from behind the screen and pile her curls onto her head, clipping them in place. Her gaze met mine in the mirror and I saw a small softening in them, but not enough to permit me to move and embrace her. I was going to be paying for what I had done seven months previous.

"You're awake," she simply said. I smiled. Oh yes, I was in trouble. "I think we need to have a lovely, calm, breakfast. And we need to talk about how you fixed this." She walked to my side and narrowed her eyes, the fierceness still in them. "You did fix this, yes?"

"Yes, Lizzie I did. We really -"

"Good." She turned and left me. My arm half suspended, trying to reach out to her, my mind settling on the many things I couldn't say, and the very few things that I could say that didn't sound like total lies.

"Damn it, Sebastian, you better be walking through that door… now." I said, barely above a whisper. I groaned. "Now?"

I slipped out of bed and sighed. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Sebastian had sided with my wife even after we returned with the Tutor - Misses Hyde. She was as stubborn as he was, and frankly, I was surprised that they had not stood against me together before. Or, maybe they had, and I was too busy to notice. I washed my face and went to my trunk and looked at the clothes that had been packed. I picked a shirt and a pair of pants, and searched for socks. I was shrugging the shirt on when the door opened and I turned.

"Oh wonderful, Sebastian. Nice for you to show up."

He smiled. "Of course, my Lord. The Lady wished to know if you were quite ready to walk back to the Hyde Orchard."

"What? I haven't eaten yet. I just barely got dressed," I said flipping down the collar on my jacket. "How is everyone done already?"

"We were not in bed or trying to get ourselves dressed," Lizzie replied as she came back in. "Shall we start without you?"

"No," I said. I looked at Lizzie as she sighed and started for the door. "Please, stop Lizzie. Sebastian, don't you leave either." I pulled the jacket around me, straightening it. "I am sorry for last night. It was an overreaction."

"Ciel, please, don't do this. Save your breath for a real explanation," Lizzie said, dropping my shoes off in my hands. "I just want to hear if Misses Hyde is coming home in a week."

I opened my mouth but she had already walked out. I looked at Sebastian and saw a small uptick in his lips. "What?"

"I don't think I have heard the Mistress so passionate."

"You seemed to have missed our rather interesting fight last night - the one after we went to bed. Or rather, I was sent to the couch for the first part of the night." He looked at me and I sighed. "Nightmares, so I was able to move to the bed."

He smiled and moved to take the shoes from me. I sat on the chair and Sebastian once more bent and put on my shoes. He also said nothing further as we walked down to the small kitchen and he handed me an apple. I glared at him, and he merely opened the door.

"Sebastian," I said, trying to keep all irritation out of my voice. "You usually are quick to advise me when I am going down a path that isn't the best. Your lack of advice is either because I have done something very wrong, or something very right. Which is it?"

"I think it will depend on today, my Lord. However, last night was a good start."

Lovely, I was going to continue to be blocked by everyone. "Where are we going?" I asked as we headed out to town. "Surely we are not welcome at Hyde's place."

He chuckled. "Like I said, your vow was a good place to start. Danny has some things she still wishes to show you before she leaves."

I sighed and bit into the apple. I had vowed to hand over my child's Soul to a Demon. Much like I had, except he would be knowing what that meant. Knowing that it was a lifetime sentence of watching one's step and trying not to second guess the moves. It meant playing the game in the Human realm, and always wondering what was happening beyond the one Humans perceived. I knew Sebastian always liked to remind me that I was not the true Master of this relationship, and he would have my Soul when perfection occurred. I slid my eyes toward the aforementioned Demon and my personal bodyguard and confidant.

"Tell me about her. Surely you know more than you share," I said. "And please, spare me any personal things. I also am very aware that you are having a relationship."

"And would we be allowed to continue such a relationship when - if - Danny comes with us?"

I sighed. "I have vowed to serve my son up to a Demon. His future could have been his, and I am allowing him to be... "

"Protected," Sebastian said. "After all this time, with me, you still are sure that this isn't the best thing? I could have left you, sad and pathetic, crying for hope. There was none, my Lord." He stopped and stood in front of me. No longer the tall man in black tailcoat, Sebastian still managed to look tall and slightly menacing. I met his gaze fully. "You may have been a insolent child who demanded me to stretch my patience, to kill and protect a simple child, but I have grown to enjoy our life together. We have found a balance to keep each other on the path." He smiled and looked at the stone wall we walked beside. "The young Master would have been fine without bringing Danny back, so why did you vow to hand him to her?"

I took in the early summer breeze and how the New England trees swayed. "Because I can't protect him from everything. One day I will be gone. I may even leave Lizzie and Rachel behind along with my son. And I want to know he is protected, even if he is an adult and can stand on his own feet."

Sebastian smiled and turned and we continued to walked down the lane, to the same rusty gate, the same overgrown hedges, and the same cottage that I had visited for the first time only four days before. Had it only been four days? I pursed my lips; Sebastian effortlessly sidestepped any information he had on the Tutor. Beyond being an American woman, former Reaper, and a Demon, there wasn't much I knew. Even the very land I was walking onto was foreign. As we passed the last branches, I saw Lizzie and Rachel looking at at some of the chickens in a pin, and Vincent sitting on a bench beside the Tutor - Misses Hyde. I stopped Sebastian from moving forward and he stood beside me as I looked at the scene before me.

"Promise me…"

Sebastian looked at me and bowed his head slightly. "Yes, my Lord."


	13. Danny POV

There was tension and calmness in the air as the Phantomhives - all four Humans and their Butler - walked around the orchard. I was cleaning off some land, picking up dead branches that had been broken off by the wind over the past few days. I watched as Lady Phantomhive held Rachel in her arms and they were touching the leaves, bark, looking at the flowers, and giggling. They were having a lovely time. Vincent was running with Brit, who was glad to have someone who he could keep up with since I tended to run a bit faster as a Demon - not always as fast as when I ran with Sebastian, but fast enough. Earl Phantomhive was leaning against the barn as I was coming back from gathering branches, watching his family. Sebastian was inside my cottage, most likely making a three-course meal.

"Hyde… Daniella," the Earl said.

"Danny is fine. Or if Mr. Hyde is easier," I said, coming over to him. "I know even knowing that I am not a man, the position of Tutor still demands it."

He sighed and nodded. "I could bring back a female Tutor. I hear it's not uncommon as it was when Lizzie and I were being schooled." He pushed off the barn wall and looked at me for a moment. "You really do love teaching my son."

I nodded. "I missed him when I first got here, still do, but the orchard has so much to be done, and I threw myself into repairing it. It was my family's farm. Up until the War."

"How come you didn't come back for it - fight for it?"

"I was a Reaper," I said, finding myself saying it as if it was casual. I glanced at the Earl and smiled softly. It was nice to talk about the world that was unseen by Humans. "My family - my brother and sisters - died in a fire. The ruins of the original house are down the other lane, and," I paused as I looked at Vincent - the young Master. "Beyond that are the graves of my family." I sighed and looked at the Earl. "Mine included. And the young Master saw it."

His eyes went round and he took a step towards me. "He what?"

"When Sebastian and he came to see me yesterday -"

"They did what?"

"Ah… when I came to your hotel rooms, I was walking back with Sebastian and the young Master. They came out that afternoon so the young Master could talk to me."

"Damn it, Sebastian," he growled and turned away from me. "He saw your grave?" he asked, looking back at me. "My son, he saw it?"

"Yes." I found myself wishing to be small and in the shadows, even as I took a bold step towards him, standing firm and tall. "He comforted me, because they are Hydes. He… I don't think… he doesn't know it was my gravestone he was looking at. He doesn't even know my first name, I'm sure of it."

The Earl snorted and turned in a tight circle, reminding me of a caged animal. "Thank goodness for small favors."

I sighed and nodded, watching the family once more. The young Mistress was almost a year old, and the young Master would be 10, the age… "Oh," I said, looking at the Earl and smiling quickly. "Excuse me, let me make sure there is space to seat everyone for lunch."

"Ah, lunch," the Earl muttered as I walked away.

"Sebastian," I said as I opened the door to my cottage. "I think the Earl may be worried because he realizes how old the young Master is going to be."

He turned and frowned. "He will be ten."

"Ten, Sebastian, ten. Isn't that the age the Earl was… when he lost his family? Made his Contract with you?"

He stilled and nodded slowly. "Yes, it would make sense. The loss of his own freedom," he added as he looked at me. "But surely he knows you would not have the same thing happen to the young Master?"

I slid my hand over his shoulders as I leaned into his back. "Humans are funny creatures," I reminded him. "We form attachments to places and things, events and ideas." I laughed and looked out the window. "We run to them when we need a space of our own."

"Hard to do when one doesn't have such an affinity for such things," he sighed.

I leaned over and caught his eye. "Really? So England doesn't have a special place in that Demonic heart of yours?"

He looked down and smiled. "Will you be there?"

I smiled and kissed his cheek. "I have a vow of a Soul, and a lover who would break his own Contract to keep me, so yes, very much will I be there."

His eyes shone brighter and he gave a small laugh and nod. "I was expecting a bit more resistance, actually."

"Remember what I just said? Humans being funny creatures?"

He kissed my nose and moved to lift the pot of potatoes off the stove. "You are not Human. But, you are a funny creature."

"Well thank you, dear," I said, gathering up plates and silverware. "Hm… missing some knives," I muttered. Sebastian reached into his jacket and pulled out three knives. He gave a mischievous smile and I saw they were engraved with the Phantomhive crest. "Cheeky, Mister Sebastian, cheeky."

We set up around the table that was fashioned from some longboards and stones. I set the table as Sebastian gathered everyone for lunch and then served us. I tried to help, but he insisted and I saw there was no reason to argue. I offered to take the young Mistress and feed her, and saw the momentary stiffening of the Earl as I took her in my arms and bounced her on my knee, offering some strawberries to her. I met his gaze and saw he was struggling. Would one of us come for her next? Would we be begging for another Soul once Sebastian claimed his? Would I claim another Phantomhive once I had Vincent? I wanted to show them that I wanted my future to be safe with them. I wanted Sebastian and those I had grown to love and care for, to be simply safe.

"Appa," Rachel gargled. She banged her small hands on the table and I looked at her and looked at the Earl.

"Did you just say 'papa?'" he asked, his eyes lighting up. He leaned over and stroked her chubby cheeks. "Yes, papa!" He looked up at me and smiled wider. "She has said 'mama' a few months back, and now 'papa!"

"I think she said 'apple,' my Lord," Sebastian said as he placed his plate in front of him. He brought over a small bowl of applesauce and sat beside me. "Apple?" he said leaning down and showing her a spoonful of the freshly pressed food.

Rachel's little arms flailed and she giggled. "Appa!"

I ventured a small glance and saw the Earl's face falling. He looked at his food and then at the others around him. "Does anyone eat anything besides apples around here?"

I looked at him fully. "You are on an apple orchard. All we have are apples beginning to grow. These are from last years crop that I bought when I got here. The chicken is from the farm."

He eyed me and picked up his fork once more. "Work on saying papa," he said, leaning back toward Rachel. "Pa-pa."

Sebastian looked at me and I felt his warm hand over my thigh. He fed the young Mistress and I drifted on the feelings of having my family once more around me.


	14. Danny POV

There was a pounding at the door as we all gathered in the cottage after lunch. Lady Phantomhive had wanted to sit and lay the young Mistress down for a nap, and I had suggested she do so in my bedroom, not go all the way back to town, which was around a 15 minute walk. She had been grateful and the Earl and the young Master had sat at my table, playing cards as Sebastian and I cleaned.

I opened the door and a man stood there, his hat in his hands and a worried expression on his face.

"Misses Hyde? I'm Gabriel Arnold and Mrs. Henchens sent me to you because you could help," he said in a rush of words. He gasped and I could see he was not used to running.

"Oh, Mrs. Henchens is a wonderful woman. Of course I will help."

"You a doctor?" he asked, peering around the outside of the house. "My wife needs a doctor. She is having a hard labor - that's what Mrs. Henchens said. I'm simply worried."

"I have a few items to help, just wait here."

I turned and closed the door partially. The Earl had gotten up and stood beside the young Master, worry etched in his face. He held his son close and I imagined he was wishing that he had been at his daughter's birth last year.

"Misses Hyde?" the young Master said, watching as I took a leather satchel off the wall. "Can we help?"

I turned to him as Sebastian grabbed a simple cloth from under the sink and stuffed it into the satchel. "There are bottles of herbs in the store room, next to the barn. Grab the green and yellow one - the stoppers are coloured. Hurry," I said, and he ran out, going the back way. The Earl picked up the cards and I placed a hand on his arm. "Can I have Sebastian come? You need to be with your family, bring them back to town or… stay here until we return, I don't mind." I bit my lip and glanced at the back door and then at Lady Phantomhive, who was asleep on the bed along with Rachel. "It may be a while, so perhaps going back to the hotel is best. Ah… and bringing me back isn't just an adjustment for the young Master but for the family, and, pardon me, but it doesn't look like the Lady is very happy with you at the moment."

His sour expression and the nod gave me the confirmation that the words Lady Phantomhive spoke to her husband were not easily dismissed. She was a fierce woman who ruled over the Manor and her husband as much as he did her and the Underbelly. The trust and love they had in one another was there, deeply, despite that the words that the Earl couldn't speak i n regards to his own, true, jobs. I smiled as Sebastian placed the vial of Souls in the bag and looked at me. We were a good team as well.

"Here! Here," the young Master said, running in and carefully placing the vials in my hand. He looked up and smiled, so bright and so proud.

"Look after the place, and Brit. Mister Sebastian and I will be home as soon as possible."

"Yes, Misses Hyde," he said without hesitation. I placed a hand on his shoulder, as I had done numerous times when he was proud of something he did. I smiled as I once more opened the door and Gabriel Arnold stopped his pacing and nodded, placing his hat on his head and hurried down the path to the main road.

"I got a horse and carriage, I'll apologize for the rough road."

"No need, sir," I said, effortlessly climbing into the back of the carriage. Sebastian was climbing next to me and he held my hand as we lurched down the road, the horse seemingly aware of the urgency its master was under. "Sebastian, the vial?"

He reached into the bag and took it out, handing it to me, his eyes soft as he wrapped his left arm around me. "You will be amazing," he whispered, kissing my temple.

I took a sip and another and closed my eyes. The last birth had sent me to the Darkness, my longing for the new Soul almost making me savage. I leaned into Sebastian and felt his hand spread down to my hand, covering my Mark, reminding me he was there beside me, this time. And we would anchor each other.

I rushed into the house, nodding to Mrs. Henchens as Sebastian closed the door behind me. I emptied my satchel and gave the vials to her. We worked hard to get Mrs. Arnold sitting up and to be shifted in a more comfortable position so we could deliver her first child. The air was tainted with blood and urgency and I felt Sebastian beyond the door and I licked my lips and set to the task before me. The baby would be born, and the mother would be fine.

"Ms. Hyde, the water needs to be refreshed," Mrs. Henchens said. I nodded and went out into the yard to get water from the well. The sun was already setting and it had been several trips to get fresh water.

"Are you doing well," Sebastian asked as he helped me fill the bucket and empty the one already bloodied.

"Yes," I said. "Just tired. The vial of Souls is a good boost, but Feeding…."

Sebastian pulled me closer and kissed my temple, sighing. "Tonight, when this is done, let's run to the city - I have heard wonderful things about New York."

"Thank you," I whispered and trudged back inside, noting that Earl and Lady Phantomhive had arrived, with a picnic basket of food. I raised an eyebrow but could not dwell on the act of reaching out to these strangers.

A bit more progress was made, and a great deal of screaming, and I found myself locking my feelings and senses away. I had to as the evening descended into night, and Mrs. Henchens and I worked with the struggling Mrs. Arnold and her baby. We took turns to let Mr. Arnold know what was happening, and Lady Phantomhive insisted I ate at least a sandwich, making me pretty sure I looked terrible. I refastened my hair and continued to assist. Rose had taken a lot out of Mama and I tried not to think about that as a few more village woman joined us, letting Mrs. Henchens and I rest for the next few hours.

"You should sleep," the Earl said as he came over to me. I looked at him and he handed me a bar of soap. "We are heading back to your home, if that is okay?"

I nodded and sighed. "I don't have a good feeling about this," I muttered.

He turned and looked at me, eyeing me and then smiled a bit. "Sebastian gets this wild look sometimes when he… needs… food. You must be drained being around that," he said, his head nodding to the house, another round of screams and groans coming out of the now open windows. "Yet, your eyes are calm. Even in what must be a hard task."

"My Lord," Sebastian said quietly as he came behind the Earl. "The Lady and your children are heading back to the farm. I advise you do the same." He looked at me and then at his Master. "Shall I accompany you?"

He waved his hand in the air, dismissing the offer. "Take your… beloved to somewhere safe. I shall be fine." He placed a hand on my arm, snapping me back to look at him. "After this, I will never second guess your resolve in keeping my children safe. You're a good woman, Daniella Hyde. I will not step in your way when the time comes for my son to be yours."

I nodded, bowing my head and smiled. "Thank you, my Lord."

I looked back at him and he nodded and turned, leaving me with Sebastian. I smiled shyly; the Earl had referred to me as Sebastian's beloved. It made me wonder what exactly they had said about me when I was gone. I had no time or desire to explore that point, though at the moment, as the Hunger took me over as the baby finally was born, and the birthing rushed out afterwards. I stumbled into the Darkness, but Sebastian's strong arms, strong hands, quickly pulled me into the shadows of the woods and scooped me up, lifting us up to the tops of the trees, racing to New York City where we would finally Feed my cravings, which had been unanswered for far too long.


	15. Danny POV

I packed up my clothes and few belongings I wanted to keep. I felt Sebastian coming up the lane and smiled as I opened the door. Since reuniting, our bond and being able to read one another, had strengthened, if not seemed to materialize, as if a new Demonic Power was intertwining us together, creating the already grounding and longing for the other, to become deeper. Without knowing how it came to be, we were able to feel when the other was near. Sebastian had said it was because we once more were Feeding together, but I also suspected if it wasn't a delicate way of saying because we were _together_ , we were more entune.

"Do I smell some happiness on you, my Lady?"

"Only because my favorite man is here to fetch me," I said wrapping my arms around his neck. He kissed me and lifted me into his arms. "And I am very ready to go."

I had hired a family from upstate to tend my farm, and had set up contacts in Easton and surrounding towns to help with selling the apples once they were ready. I had made sure that I could come back in the fall, and already the young Master was begging to come back to help pick the trees.

When I was in Sebastian's arms I was very ready to go home and finally be a couple, leaving this part of our beginning, behind. That subject alone had been another tense conversation that we had with the Earl, merely hinting we wished to be accepted as such, and he had asked, once more, to give him time.

"Danny, you are thinking a bit too hard," Sebastian said softly. I moved my head from his shoulder and smiled. "You can come here anytime," he reminded me. "The Undertaker will be thrilled to have more gossip about the Phantomhives, and," he leaned and kissed me soundly, "me. He finds me utterly fascinating."

"You act like that's a surprise," I said, brushing his hair from his face. I cupped his cheeks and looked into his red eyes. "You are not like any Demon I have met. And," I added as I unwrapped my arms and legs from him and he gently placed me on my feet, "I have met quite a few over my almost 50 years in the Society. Tagging Demons and determining their needs and classification was my specialty."

"I could listen to your stories for the rest of eternity," he muttered as he kissed me slowly. "Good thing we have enough time."

I rolled my eyes and snickered. "We have to meet the family at the end of the lane, dear. I'm sure the Earl is dreaming we are doing quite wicked things whilst you have been gone."

He slid his hands over my hips and waist and gave me a suggestive smile. "If he is, I will break him in two. He is a married man, so I am sure he has wicked thoughts, but he can't have them about you. He has no idea what wicked things you do to me."

"Down, lover," I said lightly and giggled. "I hear the Earl already gripping about me bringing Brit with us."

"His son needs a dog. Of course cats are much nicer," he said as he picked up the crate and held my hand.

I closed the door to my cottage, my home, for the past eight months and sighed. I would be coming back in a few months, and I would be heading to the place that was my real home - not just England, not just Phantomhive Manor, but where I chose to be with the ones I loved - with Sebastian, the Phantomhive family, and the servants who would be shocked when I came back.

We placed my crate and carpet bag on the back of the automobile, making it look like we were truly driving away from one life to another, and headed to Boston, and then to the ship that would take me back across the ocean, separating me again from my brother, my sisters, my parents, and the land I had once lost. But placing me firmly into the place I was meant to be, where I had chosen to be when I left America, left any traces of being a woman behind. I leaned into Sebastian slightly. Here I was willingly coming to the country as a woman. Proudly the lover of a Demon, and slowly evolving into the creature I was meant to be.

I watched the trees go by and smiled at all the memories that were surrounding my once family home. I wasn't fleeing my land to go to war. I wasn't trying to hide myself from my fellow soldiers, my fellow Reapers, or even from the eyes of Humans. I had chosen to embrace myself, my upbringing, and who I was now. Human, ex-Reaper, Demon, eternal Mate.

We stopped for the night and we made sure the Phantomhives were settled. I was walking down the short hall, having turned the lights off in the living room, when I heard the young Master crying. I knocked and opened the door slowly.

"Young Master?"

"Misses Hyde, come in," he said as he tried to calm himself. I walked into the darkened room and sat beside him on the bed. "Am I too loud?"

I stroked his head. "No, I was passing by. What is wrong?"

He sat up and wiped his hands over his eyes. "I almost lost you," he whispered. "Because I was being a child."

"Vincent, you _are_ a child. You are allowed to be one. Allowed to be confused, and worry, and tell your father all those things." I shifted and looked at him, his eyes looking at me, his Soul so bright, his scent like sunshine settling around me. "You didn't lose me. You sent me away until you were ready. And, if I can tell you a secret, your father did what he did out of love. Absolute love for you."

His arms wrapped around my waist and he rested his head on my arm. "Don't leave me, please."

I smiled and closed my eyes. "Never. That, young Master, is a promise. No matter how hard it is, can you promise me something?" He nodded and I smiled wider. "If you find something I do or say confusing, tell me? Tell your father as well, but understand there are things you must figure out on your own. Can you promise me?"

He shifted and sat on his haunches, the bedding around his feet. "I promise, Misses Hyde. If I am going to be as good of an Earl as my father, I know there will be hard things I have to face. I… I will try not to be scared of them."

I shifted and stood, taking the blankets and lifted them so he could get under them once more. "When did you get so wise?"

He giggled and sounded instantly like a small boy again. "I had a good teacher."

I smiled and nodded. "Good night, young Master."

"Good night, Tutor."


	16. Sebastian POV

The easy weight of the luggage was made even easier as I carried Danny's cases. I smiled as she walked next to me, as she would from now on. I would make sure of it, as did she. I had listened to the young Master proclaim that he would be brave, no matter what befell him, or what else Danny told him, and he seemed to be a bit older as he walked the ramp in front of us. We celebrated both the Phantomhive children's birthdays, young Vincent now 10, and the young Mistress a bouncing age of one. She was in the Mistress's arms and reached out for the Master, who turned and was talking to the young Master. As Danny said, they looked like a happy family. I smiled; they were finally once more happy as the heads of the house had made up a bit more. I at least did not find the Master looking into his clothing trunk and trying to dress himself. It was a game now for us to play as I laid his clothing out and he would put them on, grumble, and finally acquiesce.

"We have our own quarters," I said as we walked down the hall to the luxury suites that the Master had booked for the family. I slid my eyes toward my Demon and she smiled as she met my eyes. "We just have to accompany the Lord and Lady, and the rest is ours to enjoy."

"Sort of like a vacation to celebrate our private union," she said. She gave a soft laugh. "I do wonder if there is such a thing as marriage for our kind. As much as it doesn't matter, I do hear my Papa saying I should not be inviting a man I'm not married to into my bed, as a quick warning. But not strong enough," she added.

I forget how Human my lover can be. But I smiled as we passed through to the suites and I put the cases down. Danny settled the young Mistress's room and showed the young Master to his sleeping quarters.

"So will you make her an honest woman?" the Master asked as he hung up his coat. "Oh don't look shocked. I can take a guess at how you look at Ms. Hyde, and the fact you asked to be with her, makes it easy to surmise that you two are not adhering to a modern, Human morality code." He looked at me and sighed. "At least court her before the whole staff finds you two in a corner."

"We can control ourselves," I said

"I'm sure," he said as he walked past me.

I looked at Danny and watched as her perfectly fluid movements made her appear as if she floated on the surface she walked. Her curves and her shapely limbs made me wish to embrace her and never let go. I had liked the idea I knew about her secret before she revealed what she was, and that intrigue had also kept me watching her - Mr. Hyde at that point. I gave a private smile to the thought that it had been little more than a year and half since she had come to the Phantomhive Manor, and she still made me wonder what she was, and soundly kept my eyes from straying off her. I was no stranger to the needs of Humans, both male and female, since, as the Master put it, Demons did not tie themselves to the morality dictates of the times. But we had our limits. Reapers, for instance. Yet here I was, utterly devoted to an ex-Reaper. A Born Demon. Who had asked for some very Human things - a child and the bonds of marriage.

I couldn't give her both, but I could make one spectacularly. This moment, this blink, of our lives could be the bright start to show every creature - Above and Below - that the bonds of Need went further than Souls and Feeding. It went to the very emotions that created delicious Souls. It went to the core of what it meant to be Human. Demons were deprived of such emotions, building them with each Soul taken, with each study of the Humans. Angels even - with their endless devotion to an unseen God - had dipped their Heavenly wings into the Human pool as well, the curiosity of why they were so important getting the better of them. And they fought to protect the Souls, keep them pure, untainted. I pulled the young Master's chair out and looked down at him. A bright Soul, so pure, yet I saw no one fighting to keep it that way harder than a Demon whose first instinct was not to take, but to preserve. Preserve that bright Soul and endlessly protect it.

"You were rather distracted during dinner service," the Master said as we stood on the deck that evening. "Care to share?"

"Are you and the Mistress once more speaking, my Lord?"

He raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "We are working our way back to a better understanding. If you mean to ask if I sleep beside my wife, the answer is yes. But small progress is being made in other affairs." He turned to look at the water and sighed. "How will this be affecting our own mission?"

I looked at him curiously. "Are you referring to the path we once were on to find your kidnappers, my Lord?"

"I shock you, I know," he said softly, sarcastically. "And before you ask, I am not trying to avoid seeing my son go to the Tutor. I know she is safe, and will make sure so is Vincent. But there is still that burden of my past."

I nodded and looked at the Master. "You have lasted more years than I had expected." He gave a small smile and nodded as well. "But, if you wish, I can last longer as well, my Lord."

I felt his hand come down on my shoulder even as I casted my eyes downward. "Sebastian… what drives men to such lengths that we starve ourselves and justify it out of love and devotion?"

"Connection to others, my Lord," I said at last was we continued to walk, this time back to the suites. "It is what made the men who killed your parents do it, and what made you cry out. Someone is always in control."

He gave a light chuckle and nodded. "I guess I understand that more. The King's Watchdog has afforded me interesting connections." He paused before going into the main cabins. "Sebastian, what is your own connection - beyond, the obvious?"

I looked at him for a moment longer. "As horrible as it may sound, my Lord, when we started, I had nothing but our Contract to protect you from my dripping need. Now, I have a bit more to consider."

"A Demon in love," he muttered and opened the door. "I'd advise you not to break her heart, but I think that would be rather foolish. I instead hope that nothing - even the Hounds of Hell or Angels above - can ever stop you two."

I smiled and if I could have done so, without having the few onlookers see, I would have dropped to a knee and shown my utter gratefulness and pledge to him. I settled on the next best thing and placed my left hand over my heart, smiled and said, "Thank you, my Lord."


	17. Sebastian POV

There was a moment of hesitation as Danny boarded the train back to London and I understood; she had left after being dismissed now almost nine months previous, and as a male Tutor. She now was ushered back by the same man, and as a female tutor. Ah, America, how you have changed my dear Tutor!

The Master and Mistress had once more been graciously accommodating to Danny, aiding in shopping for new clothes and shoes. The Mistress had asked her to come with her to a tea shop, spending time with Danny and slowly learning about Danny, and introducing her to all as the Phantomhive Tutor, as well. All in all, I was impressed how the Mistress took Danny into her womanly circle and included her. Of course, I remembered the very look of fury on her face when she believed, slightly correctly, that Danny had been dismissed only because she was truly a female. The Master had used that as one of his main reasons not to have her around, the other was his own fear that Danny would want the young Master's Soul.

"Now who is thinking hard?" Danny said as we walked to the compartments that the family was in. I looked down at her and smiled.

"How will we tell the servants?"

She shook her head. "No plan as of yet." She slid her delicately clad hands up my jacket and fixed my labels as she slowly lifted her eyes. I drowned in the soft red eyes that had once been green and, briefly, blue. "But surely something will come together. It has to," she added as she straightened and pulled herself gently on her tiptoes to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. The train bumped and I held her close to me as we were thrown into a corner. "Oh, my knight in shining armor."

"Not so quickly, I am afraid," I muttered as her lips hovered over mine. "I think we may have some company." I turned and Danny looked over my shoulder. I assumed she thought I meant that the young Master was out and looking for us, but there were two men walking down the narrow corridor, still yards away. I could smell the guns they had under their jackets. I looked at Danny and she frowned. "That smell are guns."

"I know what guns smell like, Sebastian," she whispered. "I was a marksman and spy in the War."

I smiled quickly and pushed her into the corner, laying my lips upon hers soundly. The men were now a few feet away. I pushed into her and her eyes went round, but her hands clung to my jacket as if she understood. We would be caught being rather public and indecent by these men.

"Oh Lady, if only we had more time, and the Lady Phantomhive wasn't wanting me to hurry back," I said loud enough for the men to pause before coming around the corner. Danny suppressed a smile and lifted an eyebrow until she too heard the rustle of the men folding their jackets back and readying their guns.

"Earl Phantomhive, just one more kiss!"

I smiled against her lips and the world was suddenly faster. I pulled Danny down, as two bullets were shot at us, and I swiftly grabbed my ever ready knives and flung them at their legs, causing them to cry out and stumble in pain. Danny moved quickly grabbing one of the men, as I grabbed the other, and we pinned them. I may have applied a bit more pressure than needed to the knife wound, but to protect the true Master, I didn't care.

"Oi, you not the Earl!" the man below me sputtered. "You his Butler!"

"Correct," I hissed. "And what brings you to this little juncture we find ourselves at?"

"I ain't telling ya," he spat.

"Maybe your companion will?" Danny said. She was straddling the man's waist, rather unlady-like. She held the pistol to the man's face and smiled. "Well?"

"I'm guessing you are not Lady Phantomhive," the man grumbled as he now looked at his own gun.

Danny leaned in and slid the gun from the man's face to his chest. "No, that I am not. Answer the question."

Both men looked at one another and then back at us. "Na, I don't think we shall," the man under me gasped as I twisted the knife a bit. "Just give Phantomhive our bloody regards."

"Perhaps you would like to give them in person," I said, smiling sweetly. "Unfortunately, he is unavailable at the moment, perhaps I can point you to a better direction?"

The man gasped as I lifted him up and Danny raised an eyebrow as I opened the door that went to the small deck between the cars and dangled the man over the railing. "Will you like black or green tea when you visit us at Phantomhive Manor? I'd hate to make a pot that you would not enjoy."

"Go to hell!" the man spat.

I leaned in as I thrusted him further out. "I'll meet you there," and I let him go, his howl disappearing into the wind like he did. I brushed off my hands and came back inside, where Danny had the man standing, his leg now free of the knife, but blood was still pouring out of the wound, and was leaning against the wall. "Your companion, I believe, may come round the house and schedule a proper visit with the Earl," I said, inspecting the small specks of dirt on my gloves. I looked at the other man and sighed. "Or he may be dead, not really sure since I didn't care much for his rather rude behavior. So, back to our question - what brings you here?"

The man's eyes had gone sufficiently round as I discussed his companions quick departure off the moving train. Even Danny looked impressed. "We… we just were offered money to shoot an Earl Phantomhive! I have a new baby to care for and the cost of food is going up! Please!"

Danny leaned into him and sighed. "All well and good, but who sent you with that offer of money?"

He shook his head. "I don't know Miss! He had this fancy automobile and a blue studded coat. He was real fancy and he was down by the Docks. No one was going to say no to all that money he gave us."

I smiled and took a step towards them. "At least he was kind enough to pay up front. However, that information is useless. Please, If I may escort you off?"

I grabbed the man and disposed of him in a similar fashion as his companion and once more was facing Danny. I took the two knives and placed them in my jacket, which Danny found rather repulsing. "You are not cleaning them before you put bloody knives into your pockets?"

"I'm a Demon my love, I don't need to clean them in the usual sense." I cupped her chin with my right hand and frowned. "I see still not able to manipulate very well."

"You sound like that's a horrid thing we must remedy because I should be able to by now."

I smiled and kissed her forehead. "Everything in time, my love."

"Sebastian," Danny said as we moved back to the compartment. "Is that, those situations… the men, what you and the Earl face all the time? I mean the stories… is that what you mean?"

I could hear the awe and worry in her question. Of course we had talked about the many adventures the Master and I had had over our two decades together, but she had never witnessed, let alone been involved beyond the night she was fully Born. It was a question she would ask as I finished a tale and we would stare at the night sky seen from her large window and think about the future that lay before us as Demons, and for the Phantomhives we had vowed to protect.

"Yes, my love. It's what will be done to protect the young Master as well."

She nodded and placed a hand on mine as I was about to unlock the compartment. "Next time, let me throw them off the train. Imagine their looks when they realize a woman is doing it!"

I stifled a laugh as I looked her over and fixed her jacket that had been askewed, either by our kissing or the confrontation. "Ah, my Demon, you are truly exquisite."


	18. Danny POV

I didn't want anyone to know how nervous I was as we pulled up to the Phantomhive Manor and I saw the full staff - of three, mind you - standing at the bottom of the curved staircase leading to the front door. Sebastian placed a hand on mine and I bit my lip and shifted. Nervous. I was bloody nervous.

"You are not coming here for the first time," he whispered as he parked the automobile and slid out. "Take your time."

I nodded and stared straight ahead at the fountain; no the first time I came, I came boldly up the stairs, knowing what was in the house, already calculating how each member would react. Now? Well... I steadied my breath as I replayed the many important things that had happened in less than two years - only more than a year and half ago I had come to the Manor! The Reaping of the Head Steward, discovering the Demon who lived here was powerful, the young Master's Possession, sacrificing my life - or what it was and could have been - to have my paperwork transferred and become a Demon. And, as I placed a hand on the door handle and opened the passenger side, my longest held secret, one I had hoped would be shattered quite honestly by my retirement from the Reaper Society, was about to be revealed. I had been discovered to be a woman. And as the others of the family had grown accustomed to me, closer to me, accepted me as such.

I shook out my skirt and smoothed my jacket as Sebastian came around my side to unload the top of the automobile. He gave me a warm smile, a simple one that told me he loved me and supported me, and I could do this. How could a Demon be so dangerous and yet so loving?

"Are you ready, Misses Hyde?"

I looked down and saw the young Master holding out his hand as if he was waiting to escort me. I looked at him and took in the air around him, the already sunny day seeming to be brighter because of him. I placed a hand in his and smiled back.

"Thank you young Master," I said, giving him a small curtsy. He beamed and placed my hand in the crook of his arm, as Sebastian did when we walked, and lead me around the car.

"See there, Finny? The young Master has brought back himself a fine woman while traveling!" Baldroy said, jabbing his elbow into the Gardener. I smiled; I missed the fellow Americans crassness and unrefined nature.

"She looks a bit old for the young Master," Finnian commented back, eying me.

"You know what they say about older women!"

With that comment the young Master and I were standing almost in front of the Cook and Gardener. "Please, Baldroy, enlighten us all," I said, looking at him, cocking my head and trying not to smile too widely. "What do they say about older women?"

His head snapped toward me and I could see both the utter embarrassment of being caught about to make a dirty joke - and old one that the men on the battlefield would tell the others - and the fact that said "older woman" was standing in front of him. He stammered and then his mouth stopped wagging up and down.

The young Master tugged my sleeve and I looked down at him. "They say they are older... so wiser?"

I smiled at him and heard both the Earl and Sebastian chuckle, followed by a stern wack on the Earl's arm by the Lady. "Correct! Go help Mister Sebastian with those new school books."

"Yes, Misses Hyde!" he answered and he let my arm go and ran to the box that held the new books.

I turned and leveled my gaze at the two men before me. "Gentlemen," I started. "Perhaps better humour should be applied when there are young ears around?"

"Yes, Miss!" they said in unison.

I finally couldn't contain the laughter that was welling up. "It is good to see you both again," I said.

Baldroy squinted and crooked his head. "Did he say your name was Misses _Hyde_?"

"Yes, it is. Daniella Hyde, Tutor."

"If you two are quite done gawking at the Tutor, I suggest you pick up some of these luggage pieces," Mey-Rin said as she came over. She looked at me and smiled. "Good to have you back, _Misses_ Hyde. Glad to have another female around here."

I opened my mouth to say something and smiled; didn't Sebastian say she at one point suspect I was female? She gave the two a quick and hard tug on their sleeves and they gingerly moved to assist her in moving the luggage into the entry.

"Well, that went better than expected," I sighed as Sebastian came behind me. "I'm surprised Mey-Rin saw through my male attire. Even if she already had her suspicions before I left."

"She sees more than we give her credit," he said, watching the three. "Now, if I may show you to your room?"

I turned and smiled up at him. "Please do. I hear there are some lovely bedrooms in the Manor. The garden I hear is beautiful."

He chuckled and once more my arm was neatly tucked into the crux of his arm, and we walked up the stairs. I glanced at Baldroy as we passed him and his cigarette almost dropped as he saw how Sebastian was holding my arm, a clear indication we were _together_.

"Well I'll be…" he whispered as we walked up the stairs. I turned into Sebastian's shoulder and looked back to see him hitting Finnian in the chest and Finnian shoving him away.

"Well, I think the staff may know we are a couple as well," I said, looking up at Sebastian. "Sly man."

"It will make courting you much easier."

"Courting me? Why in the..." I tugged at his arm as we moved down the hallway toward my room. "Oh, Sebastian."

"I may not be able to give you everything that Humanized heart desires, but I can give you one - I can make you an 'honest woman' as they say."

I felt the tears prick my eyes and brushed them off as quick as I could before they ran down my cheeks. Sebastian's warm hands slide over my cheeks and brushed my lower lashes, sending me into both a smile and a round of tears. "Oh, Sebastian," I sighed as he brought me to his chest. "It's silly that it means so much you would do that."

"Anything for my lovely Mate. I would court you and take you to the chapel every lifetime if you desire."

I looked down the hall quickly and heard him chuckle before I leaned up and kissed him. "I'd follow you down every aisle."

He let me go and we walked the remaining few feet and he unlatched the door to my old room. "Your bedroom. Will this do?"

I sighed as the door revealed the familiar and comforting green and silver toned room, the wooden bed with a light blanket with a green and silver pattern. The wide windows overlooking the garden were a wonderful sight after being used to the openness of the orchard. I placed a hand on the desk and leaned down to smell the flowers and smiled at the delicate scent. "It is beautiful," I said looking at the room. I trailed my fingers over the bed and saw Sebastian's eyes dance. "And if I need you, where are your rooms, kind sir?"

He wrapped his arms around me as I did the same to him. "Laying in that bed, beside you, not caring about any rules unless you ask me to observe them."

"There are a few customs we should perhaps honor," I said, kissing his cheek. "Such as always kissing each other goodnight. Perhaps a nice lazy start to some mornings. And should there be a question regarding my hand in marriage, you shan't peek at the dress."

"So strict," he muttered. "If I may impose a few others?" I nodded. "You must come to my bed once a week to be utterly satisfied. You will let me feed you breakfast in bed. And, should there be a question regarding your hand in marriage, you must look totally surprised."

I gasped and placed my right hand over my heart and my left on my forehead. "Oh Sebastian! You ask too much!" He held me fast to his body and we both laughed. "For a dangerous Demon you are not as scary as they said you were."

"And who were _they_?"

"The Reaper Society. Your File and papers had to be filed when I got back and you went under some pretty top classification."

He puffed out his chest and smirked. "I've been known to break hearts. Devour Souls. Ravish Virgins." I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Yes, I do recall that last one," I whispered as I trailed a hand up his arm. "Oh, dear, the young Master is calling."

I giggled as he appeared at the door and blocked me. He stepped aside, opening it for a kiss. "My Lady," he said, gesturing as I walked past.

The sun was bright and there was a calm in the air as we moved through the Manor, once more feeling as if I belonged in these halls since time began.


	19. Danny POV

There was a noticeable silence as I walked around the Manor. Mey-Rin made sure I had my laundry nicely pressed and that I would have nice crisp sheets, both which Sebastian thought was rather unnecessary. I gently reminded him that I was the second female to be in service at the Manor. The Lady didn't count since she was a Noble.

"You are Noble - among Demons," he had said while we got ready for bed and he noted that there was new sheets.

I kissed him on the cheek. "Not the same thing in this Human existence. But I appreciate your vote."

The most noticeable changes came from Baldroy and Finnian, although Finnian wasn't distant at first, but I sensed betrayed and deeply hurt. Feelings I knew well from both the young Master and the Earl when they sent me away. As I moved around the gardens, I was going to to the greenhouse to gather a few new herbs for a dish Sebastian was helping me make. It was a last meal before I and the young Master, headed to America, to my family farm, for the next two months to assist with the first apple harvest. Finnian was putting in some plants and was studying a book in his hands and making notes as I came into the warm, windowed, housing.

"Finnian! The young Master was looking for you early," I said as I came in and saw him. He gave me a quick smile and moved away.

I went about my clipping and put them in a small bowl, sweeping my loose skirts under me as I leaned down and knelt before the boxes that the young Master and I had been studying. I heard the Gardener move behind me and pause, but soon walked past. His emotions and mood telling me I was not as welcomed as usual in his presence. I sighed and hung my head to try to clear it a bit.

"Finnian, please talk to me." He grunted and at least he heard and acknowledged my words, but that was all. "Finny."

"I'm not talking to you at the moment, Ms. Hyde," he said, flipping a page and examining another plant and taking notes. "I don't understand why you left and came back - the same and different. People can't do that."

I smiled. For not talking to me, he was talking to me. "I understand your confusion," I said simply and got up. "That was part of the reason I left."

"Because you were confused?"

I gave a chuckle. "No, not really me. I… I hurt the young Master - his trust and faith in me. I guess," I added as I walked a step toward him, "I did the same with you?"

"I don't know," he said, the notebook slipping from his interest. "I… I liked watching you with the young Master - he needed a friend who could help him. I tried when he came back from his school the first time, and we were good friends, but… I couldn't teach him all the other stuff, like languages and the world stuff. I only have ever been here and..." he trailed off, looking at me slightly. "Why did you come back as a girl?"

"Because that is who I am. We all have things we are hiding," I said, looking at the bowl in my hands. I lifted my eyes and looked at the tattered and well worn hat he wore at the back of his neck. "But something about this place - about the Master himself perhaps - lets us be free. Lets us be who we are."

Finnian turned and looked at me with his big eyes and bit his lip as if he was thinking hard about what I said. He eventually dropped the book to his side and turned to fully look at me. "I trusted Mr. Hyde. I don't know if I can trust you."

I smiled and nodded. The very same struggle that the young Master had faced when he ran from me when Sebastian and I returned from the theatre. The same struggle I had when I found out that Sebastian was a Class S Demon - they were not to be messed with if they found out someone was spying. Or when Sebastian walked in accidently and found out I was disguising myself as a man.

I lifted my eyes and nodded. "I don't know if I trusted you much either when I made the decision to come back."

His face fell and I saw tears pricking his eyes. His lip quivered for a moment and then he turned and took in a breath. "It must have been hardest for you to leave and be true to yourself," he said at last. He roughly dragged his sleeve across his eyes. "I'm sorry I have been so mean for the past few months."

I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed slightly. "It's hard for us to sometimes know who we are - it's like we are butterflies." He looked at me for a moment. "Butterflies don't know they are butterflies when they are young - they are simply caterpillars and eat things. They think that may be what their life only is. Until one day they fall on the need to spin a cocoon and it sleeps. It sleeps and dreams of something it can't possibly dream of - becoming something else." I smiled and looked at Finnian. "It becomes a butterfly - something it could never dream of being, but feels natural."

Finnian looked at me and then down at his hands. "I… think I understand. We all are waiting to become butterflies." He paused again and looked at me, his gaze sweeping up and down. "Besides your longer hair and you wearing a dress, you are still Mr. Hyde."

I laughed. "Yes, Finnian, I am still Mr. Hyde. Just a little more myself."

He walked past me and jerked his head, an invitation to walk with him. "I have to let you know something. Bard… he confused as well."

"Should I give him the butterfly speech?" I chuckled.

He turned and shook his head. "No more like clarify if you are with Mister Sebastian or not. He… rather fancies you. He enjoyed talking war with you and about America, but now," he blushed deeply. "He talks to me about things like affection."

Oh dear me. Now I had to defend myself from Baldroy the possible suitor? I eyed Finnian as we walked back to the Manor. I put out an arm before we got to the kitchen. I knew Sebastian was in the kitchen and I could see his shadow through the glass.

"How… far does his affections go?"

Finnian chewed his lip and looked at me. He smiled shyly. "Maybe I shouldn't say. I've never quite had a relationship and am not good around girls."

I smiled. "You do just fine, Finnian. Common, let's get these to Sebastian and we can set the Earl and his family down for a lovely meal."

Finnian smiled and nodded, and as we approached, open the door for me. He ducked his head as I thanked him and I caught Baldroy's gaze as I came into the kitchen. He set a pot of peeled potatoes beside where Sebastian stood and gave me a small smile. I quickly read the air surrounding him and brought the bowl of herbs to Sebastian instead of dwelling on it. Baldroy, by all accounts, had a woman he was seeing. I should have asked Finnian, but filed it away to ask Sebastian that night.

"Thank you, Ms. Hyde," Sebastian said, taking the bowl and dumping the cuttings on to the cutting board. "Baldroy, if you could move the potatoes so I can chop these? Also, please fetch Mey-Rin. I have some important tasks for you three."

I didn't glance at the cook to know that even Sebastian was feeling the last glance he gave me. I lifted my eyes to my Demon and silently thanked him for not grabbing me and kissing me right there. Although, honestly, I wouldn't mind. But there was a teasing in the cat and mouse game, and I wondered if this wasn't something I had to learn. When the kitchen and all the downstairs was clear - Baldroy to find Mey-Rin who was in the back halls, with a mop and bucket, and Finnian going to cut some fresh flowers for the table - I slid my hands up Sebastian's back and rested my head on the rippling muscles.

"My you have a growing number of admirers," he said, teasing as he swiftly chopped the herbs and then the potatoes. "What's a Demon to do to keep his Mate from straying?"

I stifled a laugh into his back as I kissed his neck. "Just be the best Demon a Mate could ask for." I looked over his shoulder and met his dancing eyes as he looked at me. "Keep me fed, clothed, and," I said, lowering my voice to a hushed whisper, "bedded."

"You are so easy to entertain," he breathed as he moved and laid a kiss on my lips. "Now, please entertain me once more. Gather the Master and his family and play some rousing music. I want something happy to listen to as I deal with Baldroy."

"Oh, don't be too harsh. He's but a child!"

Sebastian's lips twitched and then smiled slightly. "To me, they are babies."

"And Baldroy teased about the young Master with an older woman. I'm laying with an old man."

Sebastian caught me around the waist and pushed me up against the opposite wall, the movements quick but smooth. "I know how to… please my lovers." He kissed me slowly. "But I love learning how to please you the most, my most darling Demon."

I kissed him slowly back and brushed his hair out of his eyes. "I'm not terribly complicated."

"Mmmm… perhaps not on the outside," he said, his voice flowing over me like a cool wind. He smiled and his bright red eyes danced. "Ms. Hyde?"

"Yes, Mr. Michaelis?"

He smiled and captured my lips. "May I court you when you return from America?"

I looked at him, his red eyes dancing and playful, but also serious. I lost my breath at the love that built the flame behind his gaze. "I… I would count it as a grave offence if you didn't."

His hands slipped down my back and pulled me closer, my skirts swaying at the small movements. "If they all would stop trying to come here so quickly," he muttered and I smiled, my hands on his cheeks as I kissed him. The three servants were approaching and our alone time, literally, was coming to a pause. "May I call on you tonight?"

"My door is unlocked."

He kissed my nose with a peck and I blushed. We once more was on the opposite side of the kitchen, where we were standing when the servants had left.

As I left to go up to the Music room, I heard Sebastian under his breath "temptress" as I rounded the corner. I looked back and caught his now innocent stare and smiled. I giggled and mouthed "I love you so" and went up to the main floor. Very much looking forward to that night and the courting that would start when I returned to the Manor.


End file.
